Throwback Thursday: Inside the February 2000 issue of Teen People

Founded by Time Inc. in 1998 and shut down in 2006, Teen People magazine now mostly exists only on Tumblr and eBay. But we got our hands on every single issue from the year 2000. Each month this year, we’ll take a look back at the groundbreaking glossy. This is the second installment; earlier this month, we flipped through the December 1999/January 2000 issue.

Next up: The February 2000 issue.

The cover: Singer Britney Spears, resplendent in shimmery eye makeup and frosted lip color, promises an “intimate conversation about her body, her critics and (alert alert pun imminent) what drives her crazy.” But that’s not all: This issue tackles drug tests, dress codes, curfews and “millennium makeup.”

One of the first ads inside the issue is for “dirty denim” Calvin Klein jeans, starring David Silveria from Korn. The concept of “dirty” is taken rather literally; his shirt is missing (is he soaking it to get the stains out?), his pants are filthy, and he’s lounging in front of a soil mountain in a smoggy post-industrial wasteland. Sexy?

One of the next ads, for LA Looks gel, reminds us that the year 2000 had a lot of spiky platinum locks.

Page 48, Star Tracks: Check out the similar curly crops — complete with blonde highlights — on Keri Russell and Justin Timberlake. Also, this marks the second appearance in a row of Method Man and Redman in our Teen People tour — in the January issue they were hanging out with Britney; now they’re chilling with Pauly Shore and Fred Durst.

This Motrin ad depicts a busy teen life before the iPhone or Google Calendar were invented: Actual handwriting on actual paper!

Page 54: “Generation Next” nominates Jessica Simpson as the next Mariah Carey (????), Rachael Leigh Cook as the next Winona Ryder, Usher as the next Will Smith, Ryan Phillippe as the next Brad Pitt and Josh Hartnett as the next Keanu Reeves. None of this came to pass.

Pages 64-69: “21st Century Girl.” This interview with then-17-year-old Britney Spears takes place inside of Virgil’s, a barbecue joint in Times Square, across the way from MTV’s TRL studios, and focuses on her desire to act: “I really want to do a movie,” she says. “There are like, twenty good scripts waiting for me.” One year later — in 2001 — she would start working on Crossroads with Shonda Rhimes. Destiny!

She also talks about being scheduled to shoot an episode of Dawson’s Creek as “um, Dawson’s love interest.” Then she says: “Actually, I have no idea what I’m going to do. There was talk of me being a dork and Katie Holmes wanting to make me over, then all of a sudden I’m beautiful — that’s when Dawson starts to like me.” As far as we can tell, Britney never guest-starred on Dawson’s Creek. What happened?

Another quip from Brit Brit: “I’m over the belly. I don’t ever want to show my belly again. I read in a magazine ‘Britney shows her belly in every interview.’ I was like, No, I don’t! I don’t show my belly in everything!” Britney also references her sexy 1999 Rolling Stone cover, saying: “That wasn’t me, that’s not my personality. It was like a girl playing dress-up, you know what I mean? When I saw the pictures, I was like, ‘Wow!’ Then all this negative stuff came out about it, and I was like, ‘Well, that’s their opinion.’ I’m a Christian. I go to church. But my mom taught us, ‘Don’t be ashamed of your body. It’s a beautiful thing.'” Later, she says: “The critics can talk about my hair, my boobs and everything… [But] when they start talking about my singing and my performances and my dancing…” Uh oh! Don’t go knocking Britney’s entertainment abilities.

Pages 78-79: After a story titled “Teen Crackdown: Life After Columbine,” there’s a package called “20 Teens Who Will Change The World.” Number one is an anti-drinking activist named Brendan Brogan; number two is Beyoncé. REPEAT: Beyoncé is number TWO.

Beyoncé looked really different in the year 2000.

Moving along to pages 128-133, “The Future’s So Bright” is about all cool new makeup shades. Among the ladies modeling are Eve, Azura Skye (from the show Zoe, Duncan Jack and Jane), Brittany Daniel, Pink and Katherine Heigl (who was on the show Roswell). Loving all the bold, vivid eyeliner.

Pages 134-137 are “200 for 2000” — all the hot trends for the new year. Status symbol: cell phone. Hot dance style: Swing. Cool car: Volkswagen bug. Wheels you’ll be using: Electric car, rollerblades, Street Flyers. Search engine: Yahoo, Dogpile, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Lycos. iMac color: Blueberry. This is what the future used to look like. Memories.

Page 166: Last, but not least, the “Star Flashback” featuring Jennifer Lopez reminds us that she has had approximately one zillion jobs: Fly Girl, Jack Nicholson costar, Selena star, girlfriend of Puff Daddy. It’s also proof that this woman is aging in the most mysterious way — as in, not at all.

Next month, we’ll look at the March 2000 issue, featuring the boys from ‘N Sync wearing yellow sweaters… Except Lance. Poor Lance.