<P> The magazine began to run less fiction during the 1950s . Circulation dropped to slightly over a million by 1955, a time when magazines were overshadowed during the rise of paperbacks and television . The Golden Age of magazines came to an end as mass market, general interest publications gave way to special interest magazines targeting specialized audiences . </P> <P> Cosmopolitan's circulation continued to decline for another decade until Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor in 1965 . Brown remodeled and re-invented it as a magazine for modern single career women . The magazine eventually adopted a cover format consisting of a usually young female model (in recent years, an actress, singer, or another prominent female celebrity), typically in a low cut dress, bikini, or some other revealing outfit . </P> <P> The magazine set itself apart by frankly discussing sexuality from the point of view that women could and should enjoy sex without guilt . The first issue under Helen Gurley Brown, July 1965, featured an article on the birth control pill, which had gone on the market exactly five years earlier . </P> <P> This was not Brown's first publication dealing with sexually liberated women . Her 1962 advice book, Sex and the Single Girl, had been a bestseller . Fan mail begging for Brown's advice on many subjects concerning women's behavior, sexual encounters, health, and beauty flooded her after the book was released . Brown sent the message that a woman should have men complement her life, not take it over . Enjoying sex without shame was also a message she incorporated in both publications . </P>

Who started the first magazine dedicated exclusively to female audiences