Atoosa Rubenstein is an Iranian-American former magazine editor. She was the editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine and the founding editor of CosmoGirl. She went on to found Big Momma Productions, Inc. and Atoosa.com before becoming a stay at home mother.
Early life and education
Her father, Mansoor Behnegar, a colonel in the Iranian air force, moved the family to Queens, New York, when she was three. The family later relocated to Malverne, on Long Island. As an undergraduate student at Barnard College, Rubenstein became a public relationsintern at Lang Communications, the company that bought Sassy magazine. She worked at Carvel and retail stores to pay her bills. Rubenstein dropped out of Alpha Chi Omegasorority and took night classes to take part in her second magazine internship, which led to a position in the editorial department of American Health magazine.
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 Rubenstein, who was 26 years old at the time, 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 reversed 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 – an award that included a college scholarship, an internship at Seventeen, and a cover and spread for the publication. Rubenstein was the creator and an executive producer on the series. She appeared in several episodes of the reality show series America's Next Top Model. On 7 November 2006, she announced that she would be leaving Seventeen to launch her own teen-centered web business, write a book, and start a consulting firm specializing in the youth market. Her replacement was Ann Shoket. In December 2006, Rubenstein started Big Momma Productions, Inc.
Personal life
Rubenstein lives in Manhattan with her husband, Ari Rubenstein. He is the founder and managing partner of Global Trading Systems LLC, a stock, commodity and foreign currency trading company. On 15 August 2008, Rubenstein gave birth to a daughter. She later gave birth to twins.
