By Emma Clayton THEY don't say it out loud, but I see it in their eyes.

Whenever I sigh in mock despair at my teenage nephews and niece constantly tapping away on their mobiles and tablets I know what they're thinking. That would be: "What exactly did you do before the internet?"

I know what I did. I read Jackie magazine.

And if you were a girl growing up in the 1970s and 80s, chances are you did too. With its photo stories, gossip page, fashion tips and Cathy and Claire problem page, Jackie was - as former editor Nina Myskow describes it - a girl's best friend.

It was Jackie we turned to for advice on everything, from first love to applying blusher. The delivery of my Jackie magazine every Tuesday was the highlight of my week. I was about 12, on the cusp of becoming a teenager, and I looked up to the girls in the photo stories, with their perms and white court shoes, who usually had dilemmas over boys called Steve or Dave. Each week came a gripping tale based on "A Reader's True Experience" and, of course, the pop star interviews and pull-out posters. I was devastated, for about five minutes, when I discovered via Jackie that Sting was married.

Jackie was avidly read by a generation of girls - long before the age of social media and You Tube bloggers, it was pretty much all we had to lead us through the minefield of first dates, adolescent angst and mix-and-match accessories. And for me, it cemented a lifelong love of magazines which led me into journalism.

Jackie was read by a million teenagers a week, with sackfuls of letters pouring in for the Cathy and Claire advice column each day.

York Press:

Janet Dibley, Nicholas Bailey and Graham Bickley star in Jackie the Musical

I've never forgotten it and its impact on my formative years. So when I heard that Jackie the Musical was coming to Yorkshire this spring, I was beyond excited.

Re-visiting the heady days of the teen bible, the show is about a middle-aged divorcée who discovers her old stash of Jackie magazines and realises she needs them now for the same reason she first read them - for the do's and don'ts of dating.

With choreography by Arlene Philips and a soundtrack featuring hits from the likes of Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and Marc Bolan, it's a chance to wallow in nostalgia for us Jackie devotees.

Recently I interviewed actress Janet Dibley, who stars in the show, and we shared our affection for the magazine. "It's extraordinary how many women say they loved and devoured it," she said. "Jackie spoke to us. There isn't that voice anymore; magazines like that don't exist now, and that a shame."

Sadly, the likes of Jackie, Blue Jeans and Patches (other teen magazines were available) got left behind with the rise of tacky publications saturated with low rent celebrity tittle-tattle, offering very little to an adolescent girl.

It's all lip fillers, divas and who's heading for rehab. The innocence of the weekly photo story has long gone, while Cathy and Claire have been replaced by vacuous reality TV stars calling themselves columnists.

Jackie magazine wasn't about having attitude or obsessing over Z-list celebrities. Jackie wouldn't cut it these days, even her name is dated, and she's forever lost in a haze of fond nostalgia. But back in the day she fulfilled a vital big sisterly role, giving us something to aspire to and be inspired by.