Girlhood: Magazines and Print Culture
This unique and highly visual resource offers a captivating look into the changing lives and societal expectations placed on girls and young women in the UK, US, and Australia throughout the twentieth century.
Spanning two modules and 100 years, this collection of annuals, comics, magazines and newspapers allows users to explore how magazine and print culture both inspired and restricted girls as they navigated their journey toward adulthood.
The material, ranging from The Girl’s Own Paper of the 1890s to Sassy in the 1990s, highlights how content created for this audience evolved to meet changing expectations over this period. The content also examines how girls were encouraged to think, feel, and respond to the rapidly changing world around them, allowing for a deeper exploration through the themes of gender, media, and broader societal shifts across the century.
From beauty and fashion, to education and careers, the resource provides a unique lens through which to study print culture, society and the female experience.
Highlights
- Full runs of numerous popular and sought-after titles such as Honey, the biggest magazine in 1960s Swinging London for teens and young women and Misty, a classic cult horror and sci-fi based comic strips and stories
- Sassy, a US-based general interest teen magazine published in the 1980s-1990s aimed at young women covering a wide variety of topics intended as a feminist counterpoint to other popular titles of the time
- Australian monthly publication Cleo, launched in the 1970s and marketed to women but frequently read by teenage girls, highlighting one example of the divergence between intended and actual readership
- The Girl’s Own Paper is the oldest publication featured in the resource, first published in 1880, and an early example of a magazine created specifically for a female readership.
Included in
Modules include
| Module | Summary | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Module I (Publishing in 2025) |
Study the twentieth century in the UK, US and Australia through the eyes of girls and young women, via the annuals, comics, magazines, and newspapers created to appeal to them. This highly visual material explores how equally inspired and hampered girls were by the editorial focus of magazine and print culture as they grew up towards adulthood. Presented across two modules spanning one hundred years, the resource provides insight into the development of female entertainment, the way girls were encouraged to think and feel, and the dramatic societal changes impacting their lives. |
Twentieth Century |
| Module II |
Coming soon |
Key data
Period covered
Source archives
- Bowling Green State University
- The British Library
- Future Publishing
- Liverpool John Moores University
- State Library of New South Wales
- Careers and employment
- Beauty, fashion and lifestyle
- Consumer culture
- Education and school
- Family, friends and relationships
- Sex and sexuality
- Annuals
- Comics
- Magazines
- Catherine Driscoll, University of Sydney
- Elizabeth Dillenburg, Ohio State University
- Mary Celeste Kearney, University of Notre Dame
- Mel Gibson, Northumbria University
- Penny Tinkler, University of Manchester
- Lucy Robinson, University of Sussex
- Cultural Studies
- Women's History
- Media and Popular Culture
- Entertainment
- Children's Literature
