Publishing In 1962, Brown's book
Sex and the Single Girl was published in 28 countries, and stayed on the bestseller lists for over a year. In 1964, the book inspired the
film of the same name starring
Natalie Wood. In 1965, Brown became editor-in-chief of
Cosmopolitan, then a literary magazine famed for high-toned content, and reinvented it as a magazine for the modern single career-woman. In the 1960s, Brown was an outspoken advocate of women's
sexual freedom and sought to provide women with role models in her magazine. She claimed that women could have it all – "love, sex, and money". As a result of her advocacy, glamorous, fashion-focused women were sometimes called "Cosmo Girls". Her work played a part in what is often called the
sexual revolution. In 1997, Brown was ousted from her role as the U.S. editor of
Cosmopolitan and replaced by
Bonnie Fuller. When she left,
Cosmopolitan ranked sixth at the newsstand and, for the 16th straight year, ranked first in bookstores on college campuses.
At Cosmopolitan In 1965, Gurley Brown took over as editor-in-chief of
Cosmopolitan magazine and was in that position until 1997. Brown revamped the magazine by taking it from a women's magazine written by men to one of the most widely sold women's magazines, now available in more than 100 countries. Her take on the magazine was to be frank when talking about sex in this new version of
Cosmopolitan. After being gently let go, in 1996 at age 74 due to her increasing disconnection from young women, Brown went on to be editor of the international
Cosmopolitan magazines.
Betty Friedan, author of
The Feminine Mystique, disliked what Brown had done in her book and in the magazine. Friedan said that what Brown was doing was "anti-feminist" and an "immature teenage-level sexual fantasy". Feminist views of the magazine were re-evaluated in the 1990s, however, with
New York Times media reporter
Randall Rothenberg writing, "In retrospect, the magazine played an important role in helping young women redefine their roles in society."
Audie Cornish from
NPR said that Brown "has been called a bad girl, a pioneer in
Prada, a revolutionary in stilettos." Brown looked at herself as a feminist, but this description was contested by several others. ==Personal life and death==