We're proud to say that for the past decade we've been entertaining, engaging and informing the 30-something women of the UK, providing a glossy, stylish take on matters they love, from fashion and beauty to gossip, relationships, celebrity and health.

But how did it all begin? Launching in October 1999 (who can forget those pink ‘handbag' shaped discs that were given out in Boots), the site had a decidedly female take on life. For too long the internet landscape had been aimed at men but all that was to change. With a wide range of topics, handbag helped grow the use of the internet for women and shape the face of the internet in the UK - and saw off the competition.

Working with a team of experts and our own team of expert handbag journalists, we provided content across the areas that still are absolutely core to what we do today but with some surprising additions! We had a motoring channel, a money channel, even an education channel. Over the years handbag has evolved along with the audience and has had several incarnations.

We've had a fab 10 years at handbag.com. We were one of the first to launch a women-only Business Plan Awards to encourage female entrepreneurs. We were also one of the first to launch Celebrity Gossip - hard to imagine with the plethora of gossip sites around today! We have broken some of the biggest stories, Heath Ledger's death remaining one of the most poignant. And we remain the website for the most in-depth coverage of all the main events, be they Oscars or London Fashion Week, and publish them as they happen.

We've had enormous success and encouragement from both the beauty industry and our beauty junkie audience resulting in the continued success of our beauty awards. Watch this space for other award categories that we will be calling on you to enter in the near future.

We have an amazing handbag community that both cares for its members and provides support, gives us feedback on a daily basis (some good, some bad, some controversial) and above all, has fun...

Looking forward, we see handbag.com going from strength to strength. We've got lots of new things in the pipeline to engage and excite our audience, but in the meantime take a look at our special 10^th birthday content, win a Charles Worthington goody bag or win a fragrance - it's all to celebrate our birthday!

More handbag 10^th birthday content

10 iconic beauty products that will never go out of style

Reminisce over the past decade with our 10th birthday quiz

See what hair and beauty mistakes the celebrities have made over the past decade