This article focuses on Bobbie Halfin, executive vice president and publisher of Sassy and publisher of Dirt magazines in California. Bobbie Halfin doesn't mind her hands dirty. In fact, her desk is covered with Dirt, the new teen male magazine to be launched in September 1991 as the alter ego of its distaff sibling Sassy. Although the recession and the recent fits and failings of male-oriented publications such as Smart for Men and Men's Life would seem to soil the outlook for another male magazine launch, Halfin and her team of twentysomething editors are certain they've hit pay dirt. Just because there has never been a magazine like Dirt doesn't mean an audience for it doesn't exist, Halfin says. About 15 percent of Sassy readers are male. Teen males read a lot of magazines, like Playboy, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated, says Halfin. But she says those magazines don't tell teens what to do about a case of acne or how to deal with peer pressure. This kind of frank approach initially got Sassy into hot water with advertisers. But Sassy's advertising pages gradually have increased. Besides traditional guy topics, such as skateboarding, music, fashion and sports, Dirt will feature humor and food, for example. Halfin thinks that by pursuing a different section of the men's market, Dirt can avoid the problems faced by recent new men's titles.