Jackie (magazine) especially if the story involved a "reader's true life experience". Both the comics and the short stories invariably dealt with either romance or family issues. The centre pages of the magazine usually contained a pull-out poster of a popular band or film star. The magazine featured a section called "Silly Star File", a humorous interview with figures from the world of pop music. "Jackie" became very popular with young teenage girls, not least because of the "Cathy and Claire" problem page, which received 400 reader letters a week and dealt with controversial issues that were nonetheless relevant to the readership.
Cathy Alessi she could not turn it down. Ballantyne told David Nicholls of "Inside Soap" "I had a wry smile on my face when I read about the character of Cathy Alessi. She has two teenage sons, one just out of school and one still in school, and that's a very similar situation to my own." Ballantyne's character became popular with viewers in Australia and the actress said Cathy had some good storylines coming up, so she hoped she would become as popular as Meg. Within a year, the entire Alessi family had left, leaving only Rick (Dan Falzon) behind. When Cathy