Atoosa Behnegar Rubenstein

Art Business — 12 November 2010

Atoosa Rubenstein (born Atoosa Behnegar in Tehran, Iran in 1972) was the editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine. She was also the founding editor of CosmoGIRL!. She is currently the founder of Big Momma Productions, Inc. and Atoosa.com. ‘She was a teenage icon as she took a role of Alpha Kitty’

In 1993 Rubenstein became a fashion assistant at Cosmopolitan and five years later was made the senior fashion editor. This led to Hearst Magazines president Cathleen Black asking Rubenstein to come up with a concept for a new magazine. Forty-eight hours later Rubenstein presented the idea of CosmoGIRL! and was offered the position of editor-in-chief. This made her the youngest editor-in-chief in Hearst Magazine’s 100 year history. Rubenstein went on to make CosmoGIRL! a success with a circulation of 1.25 million readers.

In May 2003, Hearst Magazines bought Seventeen magazine and gave Rubenstein the position of editor-in-chief. Rubenstein quickly went on to reverse a five-year decline in Seventeen’s newsstand sales and delivered total newsstand growth of 23% by the end of 2005.

In the fall of 2005, a series that Rubenstein conceived titled Miss Seventeen, debuted on MTV. The series featured seventeen girls competing for the honor of being Miss Seventeen – a life-changing award that included a college scholarship, an internship at Seventeen, and a cover and spread for the iconic publication. Rubenstein was the Creator and an Executive Producer on the series.

She has also appeared in numerous episodes of the reality show series, America’s Next Top Model Season 2. (4 episodes, 2006)

On 7 November 2006, she announced that she would be leaving the magazine to launch her own teen-centered Web business, write a book and start a consulting firm specializing in the youth market. Her replacement is Ann Shoket.

In December 2006 Rubenstein started Big Momma Productions, Inc. after a thirteen-year career with Hearst Magazines.