Adult is a magazine of "new erotics"[1] launched in November 2013[2] by editor-in-chief Sarah Nicole Prickett, creative director Berkeley Poole, publisher Noah Wunsch, and photo editor Jai Lennard.

[3] Lauren Festa later joined as assistant editor, as well as Cheyenne Skeete as editorial intern.

[4] Writing in New York Magazine, Molly Fischer described the first issue as having a "spirit of exuberant debauchery.

"[5] In The Daily Beast, Erin Cunningham said the magazine's "strong literary presence, combined with artistic photography, allows Adult to be so much more than the conventional idea of erotica."

Other critics questioned whether the magazine really represented a departure from prior forms; at The New Republic, Diane Mehta wrote of Adult's first issue that "the most surprising thing about it is just how traditionally masculine its view of female sexuality is.