Mad About Boys

Mad About Boys was a magazine aimed at 8 year old girls in the United Kingdom. It attracted controversy over what many saw as adult content (even though this did not actually exist in the magazine), and was banned from many chain stores, including Woolworths and WH Smith.

Barney Dow, one of the 'hunky babes' featured in the magazine, was due to become 'Boy of the month', encouraging the magazine's young audience to vote for each contestant. Unfortunately the magazine was banned before he could be 'crowned'. Other unsuccessful candidates included Thomas Ellum, Nicky Thomas, Thomas Williams and other 15 year old boys. They were offered 'vouchers' as payment for the privilege of 'becoming a pin up' in the magazine, and were led to believe the magazine would launch their modelling careers. Most of the copies were destroyed, however there are still rare copies circulating in the Maldon area where some of the models came from.

See also: moral panic