Book of the Week: Some Wore Bobby Sox : The Emergence of Teenage Girls' Culture, 1920-1945 (Girls' History and Culture) by: Kelly Schrum

Society has been set on images of teenage girls in poodle skirts during the 1950's as being the beginning of teenage girl-dom. Author Kelly Schrum focuses on the economic power of teenage American girls beginning after WW I. Through her research she discovered that teenage girls have been swooning over movie stars and using their allowances to buy the latest make-up and fashions for years.

It wasn't until after WW I that a teenage identity arose in America and that's when the consumer culture became geared toward teens, focusing on females. Fashion, beauty, music and movies became the high school girl's fixation and both consumed and influenced what manufacturers, marketers, and retailers offered to them. She examined national trends and individual teen lives and compared the relationship between consumer culture and the teenage girl's ability to select, accept, reject and appropriate consumer goods.

I enjoyed looking at all the illustrations. There were wonderful ads from catalogs and high school year books. Some of the products are still around!