Helen Gurley Brown, the legendary editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, passed away in New York on August 13^th 2012 aged 90-years.

Brown was at the helm of the magazine from 1965 to 1997, but remained as international editor of 64 other editions until her death. She is widely acknowledged as “giving Cosmopolitan its Purrr”, transforming it from a stuffy post-war magazine preoccupied with the perfect housewife stereotype to a manual for the forward-thinking ‘Cosmo girl’.

Brown is considered a pioneering example for the modern woman thanks to her three books Sex and the Single Girl, Sex and the Office and Sex and the New Single Girl. Through Cosmo and her books, Brown promoted the ideal that women be financially independent, glamorous and sexually liberated.

Her mantra of this “new woman” was always both heralded and criticised by the feminist community; her views that women should be hard-working and ambitious were applauded but that they should at all times remain desirable, fashionable and thin was the subject of much debate.

 Still, her impact on women around the world cannot be underestimated. Some of her best quotes include,

“The message was: So you’re single. You can still have sex. You can have a great life. And if you marry, don’t just sponge off a man or be the gold-medal-winning mother. Don’t use men to get what you want in life- get it for yourself.”

“Nearly every glamorous, wealthy, successful career woman you might envy now started out as some kind of schlepp.”

“Beauty can’t amuse you, but brainwork- reading, writing, thinking-can.”

“Cosmo is feminist in that we believe women are just as smart and capable as men and can achieve anything they want. But it also acknowledges that while work is important, mean are too. The Cosmo girl absolutely loves men!”

It seems a defining moment in her life was when she was told by her boss in the 1940s that rich and famous men could marry anyone they wanted, mind you, it would not be her; “they want sensuous and sexy girls: you are not pretty enough”.

Not one to be disheartened, the formidable character soon realised her talent for witty and snappy writing and began working as a copy writer, eventually rising to be the highest paid sloganeer and becoming an account executive. She met her husband David Brown, a Hollywood producer and married him in 1959, telling him “marry me- or it’s over.

Her book Sex and the Single Girl published in 1962 was an account of her bachelorette years and it shocked conservative America with the news that unmarried women not only had sex, they enjoyed it too.

David and Helen pitched the idea for a women’s magazine to Hearst publications who turned it down, but installed Helen as the editor of the magazine that was to define her life. She then continued to frankly inform women how to enjoy and use their sexuality for the next 32 years.

For such a huge presence and influence, Brown was ironically a tiny petite woman of 5’4” and just over 7 stone. She draped her tiny frame in costume jewellery, elegant outfits and had her motto emblazoned on a pillow in her office; ‘good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.’

An outrageous and radical woman who had breast implants at 73 and told women to "spread semen over your face ... makes a fine mask – and he'll be pleased" was hesitant to leave the public spotlight as she would then become just an “old crone”.

Her husband predeceased her in 2010. This year she donated $30 million to Columbia and Stanford Universities to establish an institute for media innovation in her and her husband’s names.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said of her, “Today New York City lost a pioneer who reshaped not only the entire media industry, but the nation’s culture. She was a role model for the millions of women whose private thoughts, wonders and dreams she addressed so brilliantly in print.”