The Press: The Women

Since the birth of Triangle Publications' Seventeen five years ago, Helen Lachman Valentine, a lively, bright-eyed grandmother, has been its editor-in-chief. She liked to call it "my baby," and mothered not only the money-making teenagers' monthly (circ. 1,012,998) but the 50 girls and lone man on its editorial staff. One afternoon last week, 56-year-old Editor Valentine called her brood into her neat chartreuse-and-green Manhattan office. "Seventeen has grown up," said Mrs. Valentine with a catch in her voice. "It's a big girl now . . ." Like a mother who has watched...

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