Images of teenage girls in poodle skirts dominated American popular culture on the 1950's. But as Kelly Schrum shows, teenage girls were swooning over pop idols and using their allowances to buy the latest fashions well beforehand. After World War I, a teenage identity arose in the US, as well as a consumer culture geared toward it. From fashion and beauty to music and movies, high school girls both consumed and influenced what manufacturers, marketers, and retailers offered to them. Examining both national trends and individual lives, Schrum looks at the relationship between the power of consumer culture and the ability of girls to selectively accept, reject, and appropriate consumer goods. Lavishly illustrated with images from advertisements, catalogs, and high school year books, Some Wore Bobby Sox is a unique and fascinating cultural history of teenage girl culture in the middle of the century.

In Babysitter, Miriam Forman-Brunell brings critical attention to the ubiquitous, yet long-overlooked babysitter in the popular imagination and American history. --from publisher description.

Never before has so much popular culture been produced about what it means to be a girl in today's society. From the first appearance of Nancy Drew in 1930, to Seventeen magazine in 1944 to the emergence of Bratz dolls in 2001, girl culture has been increasingly linked to popular culture and an escalating of commodities directed towards girls of all ages. Editors Claudia A. Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh investigate the increasingly complex relationships, struggles, obsessions, and idols of American tween and teen girls who are growing up faster today than ever before. From pre-school to high school and beyond, Girl Culture tackles numerous hot-button issues, including the recent barrage of advertising geared toward very young girls emphasizing sexuality and extreme thinness. Nothing is off-limits: body image, peer pressure, cliques, gangs, and plastic surgery are among the over 250 in-depth entries highlighted. Comprehensive in its coverage of the twenty and twenty-first century trendsetters, fashion, literature, film, in-group rituals and hot-button issues that shape—and are shaped by—girl culture, this two-volume resource offers a wealth of information to help students, educators, and interested readers better understand the ongoing interplay between girls and mainstream culture.

This book examines the history of female adolescent sexuality in the United States from the middle of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the 1960s. The book analyzes both adult perceptions of female adolescent sexuality and the experiences of female adolescents themselves. It examines what girls knew (or thought they knew) about sex at different points in time, girls’ sexual experiences, girls' ideas about love and romance, female adolescent beauty culture, and the influence of popular culture on female adolescent sexuality. It also examines the ways in which adults responded to female adolescent sexuality and the efforts of adults to either control or encourage girls' interest in sexual topics, dating, girls’ participation in beauty culture, and their education on sexual topics. The book describes a trajectory along which female adolescents went from being perceived as inherently innocent and essentially asexual to being regarded (and feared) as primarily sexual in nature.

Ever felt you need to turn to a whole team of advisers for help in bringing up your wayward children? From psychiatrists to cooks, from laundry maids to substance abuse counsellors? Then this book, an easy-to-read guide to teenagers—and how to live happily with them—is aimed at you. By interviewing over 40 parents and their offspring, and based on up-to-the-minute medical and social facts, the authors have produced a handbook that highlights areas of conflict and advises on how to get things right. For both parents who want to get maximum enjoyment out of life with their teenagers and for teenagers to give to their parents, this book seeks to cover everything you want to know about friendships, drugs, sex, bullying, grief, eating disorders, and general teenage living.

Through an examination of World War II era Frank Sinatra fan communities in the United States, The Business of Bobbysoxers considers celebrity following, fan behavior, and popular music culture as a window into the lives of wartime female youth.

A comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians, this book presents a detailed exploration of the breadth of visually arresting, consumer-driven styles that have emerged in America since the 20th century. What are the origins of highly specific denim fashions, such as bell bottoms, skinny jeans, and ripped jeans? How do mass media and popular culture influence today's street fashion? When did American fashion sensibilities shift from conformity as an ideal to youth-oriented standards where clothing could boldly express independence and self-expression? Street Style in America: An Exploration addresses questions like these and many others related to the historical and sociocultural context of street style, supplying both A–Z entries that document specific American street styles and illustrations with accompanying commentary. This book provides a detailed analysis of American street and subcultural styles, from the earliest example reaching back to the early 20th century to contemporary times. It reviews all aspects of dress that were part of a look, considering variations over time and connecting these innovations to fashionable dress practices that emerged in the wakes of these sartorial rebellions. The text presents detailed examinations of specific dress styles and also interrogates the manifold meanings of dress practices that break from the mainstream. This book is a comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians and provide fascinating reading for students and general audiences.