BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Girlhood (It's Complicated)

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Girlhood (It's Complicated):

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Description of Pictures: Girlhood (It's Complicated)
October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2022
The history of girlhood is not what people think; it is complicated. Young women are often told that girls are “made of sugar and spice and everything nice.” What is learned from history is that girls are made of stronger stuff. They have changed history. From Helen Keller to Naomi Wadler, girls have spoken up, challenged expectations, and been on the frontlines of social change. Through their lives, what it means to be a girl—and a woman—has always been part of the American conversation. Girlhood (It’s Complicated) showcases unexpected stories of girlhood, engaging the audience in timely conversations about women’s history.
With a design inspired by zines, the 5,000-square-foot gallery has five story sections: Education (Being Schooled), Wellness (Body Talk), Work (Hey, Where’s My Girlhood?), Fashion (Girl’s Remix), plus seven biographical interactives stories, A Girl’s Life. The design features custom murals and illustrations by artist Krystal Quiles. The exhibition will tour the country through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service from 2023 through 2025.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. GIRLH1_201013_018.JPG: Hello! Girlhood (It's complicated) commemorates the anniversary of woman suffrage by exploring the concept of girlhood in the United States, but also how girls changed history in five areas: politics, education, work, health, and fashion. We argue that girlhood has an unexpected and complicated history and that girls, like suffragists, used their voices to make a difference. Exhibitions are created by large teams of experts in everything from history to design. Our team was inspired by magazines and zines -- how girls have been spoken to and how girls talk back. Enjoy!
2. GIRLH1_201013_029.JPG: (body talk) Wellness Americans talk about girls' bodies a lot. Why? Because girls' bodies are often treated like community property.
3. GIRLH1_201013_031.JPG: (hey, where's my girlhood?) Work Not all girls had a childhood because they had to work.
4. GIRLH1_201013_033.JPG: A Girl's Life Each story in this series offers a window into a girl's life and how she made history.
5. GIRLH1_201013_035.JPG: Fashion (remix) Girls made fashion their own, and they made it speak.
6. GIRLH1_201013_040.JPG: Education (being schooled) In school, girls are taught to fit in.
7. GIRLH1_201013_042.JPG: News and Politics (girls on the front lines of change) Girls make history. Now, and in the past, girls show us that politics runs much deeper than being a Democrat or a Republican.
8. GIRLH1_201013_060.JPG: "My friends and I might still be...in elementary school, but...we know life isn't equal for everyone and we know what is right and wrong. We...stand in the shadow of the Capitol and we know that we have seven short years until we too have the right to vote. So I am here today to honor the words of Toni Morrison. "If there's a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it." -- Naomi Wadler, March 24, 2018 Naomi Wadler Speaking before hundreds of thousands of people can be nerve-racking. But you'd never guess that watching Naomi Wadler. At age 11, she rose to national prominence as a leader in the 2018 March for Our Lives to end gun violence. She remembers becoming politically aware at age 5 when George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student. Naomi Wadler, March for Our Lives, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2018
9. GIRLH1_201013_066.JPG: Naomi Wadler's Scarf, 2018 Gift of Naomi Wadler and Julie Wadler Naomi Wadler had one day to write her speech for March for Our Lives. She came home from school on Friday and worked hard until bedtime. Then she had to find something to wear. Nothing seemed right. Her aunt, Leslie Wadler, came to the rescue. She furiously knit a scarf while she watched two movies. The "two-movie scarf" became Naomi Wadler's signature.
10. GIRLH1_201013_077.JPG: News and Politics (girls on the front lines of change) Girls make history. Now, and in the past, girls show us that politics runs much deeper than being a Democrat or a Republican. It's political to speak up, to support a cause, or to use social media to turn heads or change minds. Some girls grab headlines. Others don't. But that doesn't mean they don't make history. Just being a girl makes a person political.
11. GIRLH1_201013_087.JPG: Breaking Barriers Girls have always played sports, from all-girls baseball teams in the 1800s through pick-up games that occur in every neighborhood. Yet they faced cultural barriers (the idea that girls were not athletic) and structural barriers that denied them equipment and a place to play. The federal government changed that in 1972 when it added Title IX to the Civil Rights Act and barred discrimination based on sex and race. Adequate resources challenged beliefs that girls could not play.
12. GIRLH1_201013_090.JPG: Awesome Dawesome Dominique Dawes began her Olympic career at age 15, winning four medals in three Olympics. She became famous for her back-to-back tumbling passes on the floor exercise. For girls like Dawes, athleticism opened a door to self-expression. Dawes remembered that gymnastics taught her to dream and to find a way to achieve all that she was capable of.
13. GIRLH1_201013_096.JPG: Gymnastics Leotard, 1996 Gift of Dominique M. Dawes Dominique Dawes wore this gymnastics leotard at the 1996 Summer Olympic games in Atlanta. She was a member of the gold-medal winning "Magnificent Seven." Born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dawes began taking gymnastics at age 6.
14. GIRLH1_201013_101.JPG: "Eleven years old is not an early age to set your sight on the Olympics for a gymnast because we normally peak in high school." -- Dominique Dawes, 2012
15. GIRLH1_201013_118.JPG: Education (being schooled) Being schooled, girls talked back In school, girls are taught to fit in. In classrooms, on the playground, at lunch, and even in the bathroom, girls learn how to behave, what to wear, what to say, and what to study. They learn the rules, and they learn how to break the rules. In this mix, girls confront what society expects from them. Like anyone being "schooled," girls talk back.
16. GIRLH1_201013_121.JPG: School Desk Patent Models, 1860's–1880's Schools regulate brains and bodies. They teach us how to break up our days into hours and class periods, how to be punctual, and how to sit still. The designers of these early school desks worked to keep children facing forward and focused on the teacher. By controlling children's bodies, desks teach self-discipline.
17. GIRLH1_201013_126.JPG: Making an Impact "The way to help the blind or any other defective class is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities of our entire civilization." -- Helen Keller, 1912 Deaf and blind from the age of 19 months, Helen Keller (1880–1968) grew up to be an outspoken advocate for people with disabilities, woman suffrage, and workers' rights.
18. GIRLH1_201013_132.JPG: Sculpture of Helen Keller, 1907 Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery Sculptor Winifred Holt depicted her as still and lady-like. Keller was, in reality, impatient and outspoken.
19. GIRLH1_201013_137.JPG: "The way to help the blind or any other defective class is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities of our entire civilization." -- Helen Keller, 1912
20. GIRLH1_201013_141.JPG: "The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands -- the ownership and control of their lives and livelihood -- are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights." -- Helen Keller, 1911
21. GIRLH1_201013_149.JPG: Helen Keller's Watch, 1865 Keller received this watch in 1892 when she was 12 from a retired diplomat. This "touch watch" allowed its owner to tell time by feeling the pins around the edge. Keller, who kept a busy schedule, treasured this watch for the rest of her life.
22. GIRLH1_201013_160.JPG: Note that this section is in Braille, but you're not supposed to touch because of Covid.
23. GIRLH1_201013_172.JPG: Minnijean Brown's graduation dress, 1959 Graduation was a huge day for Minnijean Brown. Back in Little Rock, she hadn't been certain that she would be alive and unharmed to graduate high school. To celebrate, she designed this dress. "It was a perfect fit," she remembered, "and I felt perfectly beautiful in it."
24. GIRLH1_201013_175.JPG: Minnijean Brown's suspension notice, 1958 Inside Central High, white students terrorized Minnijean Brown. They punched her, kicked her, and lit paper on fire to throw at her. When she stood up for herself the first time, Principal Jess Matthews suspended her. The second time, he expelled her. She had to leave her family and move to New York to complete her education
25. GIRLH1_201013_183.JPG: "I just can't take everything they throw at me without fighting back. -- Minnijean Brown, February 14, 1958 Minnijean Brown's First Day at Central High, Little Rock, 1957 Minnijean Brown was excited to go to Central High because it looked "like a castle." She was convinced she would receive a superior education there. But on the first day of school, the Arkansas National Guard blocked her entrance. She faced an army to get an equal education.
26. GIRLH1_201013_187.JPG: Who Gets to Go to School and Stay in School? Some girls made history by simply going to school and claiming their right to belong. Minnijean Brown is one of those girls. In 1957, she and eight classmates integrated the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the civil rights movement. White students physically and verbally assaulted them in school. When she stood up for herself, she was expelled for fighting back. How many girls endure bullying to stay in school? Minnijean Brown was excited to go to Central High because it looked "like a castle." She was convinced she would receive a superior education there. But on the first day of school, the Arkansas National Guard blocked her entrance. She faced an army to get an equal education.
27. GIRLH1_201013_201.JPG: Schooled to Work School prepared girls for the future. But not all futures were the same. Some girls would work in factories, farms, and offices. Others would nurse, teach, sew, or stay at home. Schools shaped these futures. Some girls had access to gifted programs, others to vocational training. At school, girls confronted the nation's ideas as to where they fit in, where they belonged, and how much they would be paid. Schools undervalue girls because women are undervalued in the workplace.
28. GIRLH1_201013_204.JPG: Schooled to be Ladies (1776-Present) Girls get to go to school. That was revolutionary back in the 1700s, when the nation was founded. Until then only a few men were educated, if they were merchants, lawyers, or leaders. Democracy changed that. As future mothers, many believed that girls needed an education to raise the next generation of citizens. But it's complicated. School was only available to those who could afford it. Good schooling still comes at a price.
29. GIRLH1_201013_207.JPG: Elizabeth Throckmorton's Sampler, 1804 At school, most girls sewed samplers to learn to read, write, and reason. Needlework also provided a valuable skill that gave women and girls a way to make a living. A seamstress could operate an independent business from her home. Women valued this work because it was safer than working in another person's home or business. Elizabeth Throckmorton was 10 when she made this sampler.
30. GIRLH1_201013_211.JPG: Girls sewed images of maps, botanical specimens, political statements -- you name it, they sewed it.
31. GIRLH1_201013_217.JPG: School Desk Patent Models, 1860's–1880's Schools regulate brains and bodies. They teach us how to break up our days into hours and class periods, how to be punctual, and how to sit still. The designers of these early school desks worked to keep children facing forward and focused on the teacher. By controlling children's bodies, desks teach self-discipline.
32. GIRLH1_201013_222.JPG: Awards for Good Behavior, 1896–1907 Girls were awarded medals like these for self-discipline and achievement.
33. GIRLH1_201013_225.JPG: Schooled to be Wage Workers (1900-1950) While some girls were educated to be ladies, others were educated for wage work. Schools concentrated on cooking, laundry, and plain sewing to educate working-class girls from 1900 to the 1950s. 1900 Like other schools, Hampton Institute introduced young girls to domestic science so they could care for their future families and, if necessary, find work in other people's homes. 1939 In South Carolina, preteens learned how to operate sewing machines to prepare for work in the clothing industry. 1950s Indian boarding schools trained teenagers for work in kitchens and homes.
34. GIRLH1_201013_231.JPG: Domestic Worker's Uniform, around 1960 Gift of Mrs. Jefferson Patterson An unidentified woman wore this uniform when she worked for Mrs. Jefferson Patterson, a Washington, D.C., journalist and socialite. Her labor bought Patterson the time to pursue her career.
35. GIRLH1_201013_246.JPG: Schooled to be Secretaries (1900-1980) Girls took advantage of school typing programs because offices paid better than factories and were cleaner too. But training didn't guarantee a job. Most employers did not hire Latina or African American secretaries. "I skipped typing class in 1978 because I didn't want to be a secretary. Did you take typing?" -- Nancy, the curator 1900s White men performed secretarial duties as clerks through the 1910s. With the typewriter, employers opened office work to lower-paid white women. 1950s Girls took typing classes in the hopes of finding a job with better wages. Yet employers mostly hired unmarried white women. 1970s This 1975 classroom is like the one from 1900. Secretarial work promised girls an independent income for almost a century.
36. GIRLH1_201013_250.JPG: Claiming Citizenship: Freedom Schools Slavery, segregation, and racism denied African Americans access to full citizenship. They were (and are) set apart. Refusing to accept this injustice, African Americans created their own schools that later became known as Freedom Schools. Black educators taught girls Black history, literature, and the arts, as well as other subjects. Girls took pride in their culture and felt valued. 1859 This illustration is of an African American school in Gay Head, Massachusetts. Both in the North and South, African American educators established their own schools as early as 1794. Often these schools operated in secret. 1905 Mary McLeod Bethune, like other teachers, used her education to teach girls how to respect themselves and African American culture. 1964 The first officially titled Freedom Schools opened in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers extended freedom schools across the nation. 2014 Girls continue to attend Freedom Schools around the country run by the Children's Defense Fund.
37. GIRLH1_201013_253.JPG: Claiming Citizenship: Freedom Schools Slavery, segregation, and racism denied African Americans access to full citizenship. They were (and are) set apart. Refusing to accept this injustice, African Americans created their own schools that later became known as Freedom Schools. Black educators taught girls Black history, literature, and the arts, as well as other subjects. Girls took pride in their culture and felt valued.
38. GIRLH1_201013_255.JPG: 2014 Girls continue to attend Freedom Schools around the country run by the Children's Defense Fund.
39. GIRLH1_201013_260.JPG: 1859 This illustration is of an African American school in Gay Head, Massachusetts. Both in the North and South, African American educators established their own schools as early as 1794. Often these schools operated in secret.
40. GIRLH1_201013_263.JPG: 1905 Mary McLeod Bethune, like other teachers, used her education to teach girls how to respect themselves and African American culture. Mary McLeod Bethune at the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls, 1905
41. GIRLH1_201013_264.JPG: 1964 The first officially titled Freedom Schools opened in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers extended freedom schools across the nation.
42. GIRLH1_201013_270.JPG: Robot, CompSciConnect, 2018 Gift of Maryland Center for Women in Computing Amber Melton made this robot at CompSciConnect, a University of Maryland camp. When few girls signed up for the university's computer science classes, Dr. Jan Plane realized that something in the high schools wasn't working. So she created a camp for middle schoolers to excite them about computer science by making robots, webpages, and virtual reality games.
43. GIRLH1_201013_275.JPG: In the 1900s, Science was "For Boys" By the 1920s, the association of girls with math and science disappeared. When science became a profession, women and girls were labeled unfit to be paid, professional scientists. With the recent emphasis on STEM, as many girls as boys take math and science classes today. Computer science is the one exception. In fact, each year the number of girls taking computer science gets smaller. Being the only girl in class can be alienating. So girls and their mentors have formed camps and clubs to learn outside of school.
44. GIRLH1_201013_277.JPG: "It does appear that on...overall IQ, mathematical ability, scientific ability - there is a difference in...a male and a female population." -- Larry Summers, 2005
45. GIRLH1_201013_280.JPG: Schooling the Brain In school, children are sorted into one of two categories: boy or girl. In classrooms, on the playground, at lunch, and even in the bathroom, girls learn what society expects from them. In the 1900s, boys were assumed to be better at science and math. It used to be different. In the 1800s, more girls than boys studied science and math. And here's the story of how that happened.
46. GIRLH1_201013_286.JPG: In the 1800s, Science was "For Girls" More girls than boys studied geography, chemistry, biology, and physics in the 1800s. These subjects were seen as good for girls because they strengthened the mind and gave girls an appreciation of nature, and therefore God. Science didn't become a "boys" subject until the 1900s, when jobs in science became available.
47. GIRLH1_201013_289.JPG: Catalina Juliana Mason's Map Sampler, around 1837
48. GIRLH1_201013_295.JPG: Botanical Notebook, 1837 At a very young age, girls were encouraged to closely examine the world around them. They kept botanical notebooks like this one to study and compare what they observed.
49. GIRLH1_201013_300.JPG: Troughton & Simms Refracting Telescope, around 1840 Gift of University of Alabama, Department of Physics Some girls had access to telescopes, such as this one, to study astronomy. Maria Mitchell was an astronomer and one of America's first woman scientists. She trained generations of women scientists at Vassar College.
50. GIRLH1_201013_303.JPG: "Some of the best mathematicians I have ever taught were females." -- Joseph J. Bingham, 1865
51. GIRLH1_201013_312.JPG: Demanding Inclusion: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Schoolgirls have been on the front line of change, demanding inclusion. Undocumented girls raised in the United States see themselves as Americans. The nation disagrees. In 2012 the Obama administration issued Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Under DACA, youths could stay in the country if they could document having lived in the United States for five years. But DACA made it clear that citizenship would not be granted.
52. GIRLH1_201013_319.JPG: Yadira Montoya's First Grade Picture, 1991 "Being a DACA recipient is bittersweet....It lessened the fear of being deported...but this relief is temporary." -- Yadira Montoya, 2018 Yadira Montoya is one of approximately 700,000 DACA recipients. Born in Mexico, she grew up in Little Village on the West Side of Chicago. When applying for DACA, she submitted report cards, certificates, and awards as proof of residency status, good moral character, and educational achievements.
53. GIRLH1_201013_322.JPG: Yadira Montoya's Report Card and Award, around 1998–2002 Yadira Montoya attended Farragut Career Academy in Chicago. She was a member of the debate and academic decathalon teams and was salutatorian of her graduating class. High school provided her the space to become politically active in issues of social justice.
54. GIRLH1_201013_326.JPG: Yadira Montoya's Report Card and Award, around 1998–2002 Yadira Montoya attended Farragut Career Academy in Chicago. She was a member of the debate and academic decathalon teams and was salutatorian of her graduating class. High school provided her the space to become politically active in issues of social justice.
55. GIRLH1_201013_335.JPG: DACA Wings, 2018 Monarch butterflies have become a symbol for undocumented Americans. Every year in a rush of color, Monarchs take flight, beginning a 2,500-mile journey north. Like migrants, they cross borders to survive. These wings were worn by DREAMers from Nebraska on March 5, 2018, the day the DREAM Act hung in the balance and ultimately failed in Congress. Hundreds gathered in Washington, D.C., to make their voices heard.
56. GIRLH1_201013_339.JPG: Schooled for the Nation For most of the nation's history, schools prepared girls for a common future -- motherhood. Girls would raise the next generation of Americans. The future of the country rested in girls' bodies and beliefs. Girls' power over the future made many adults uncomfortable. Who would raise future citizens? Who would raise children denied this right? The battleground over national belonging was waged over a girl's education. Girls could shape the future and create new versions of America. Will all girls be mothers someday? "On you, ladies, depends, in a most important degree, the destiny of our country." -- Jonathan F. Stearns, 1837
57. GIRLH1_201013_343.JPG: Betsy Bucklin's Sampler, 1781 At age 13, Betsy Bucklin felt free to express her political views. She felt that women's virtues gave her a special voice.
58. GIRLH1_201013_346.JPG: Raising Citizens Girls' education became important after the American Revolution. The Republic wanted educated voters and counted on girls (as future mothers) to teach their children well. While the United States valued women as mothers, it denied them their personhood. Nationally, women had a voice but no vote until 1920.
59. GIRLH1_201013_350.JPG: Number of Women Office Workers 1870 1,000 1910 100,000 1920 1,000,000 (office workers earned $11 a week: Department store workers earned $8 a week, domestic workers earned $2 a week) (fewer than 1% were African Americans) 1987 5,200,000 2001 3,400,000
60. GIRLH1_201013_356.JPG: 1905 Girls didn't wear corsets under these shirtwaists. This was considered very scandalous.
61. GIRLH1_201013_360.JPG: 1925 Legs... Rolled stockings exposed bare legs. Girls got detention for wearing new fashions to school.
62. GIRLH1_201013_363.JPG: Schooling the Body Dress codes enforce a vision of girlhood by telling girls what to wear. For more than six generations, girls have been sent home (and denied education) for violating a dress code. The rules change over time, but the belief that girls' bodies are trouble remains constant. Some girls' bodies are treated as more trouble than others. This is particularly true for girls of color and working-class girls. Breaking barriers, girls fought back and claimed the right to love their bodies in all shapes, colors, and sizes.
63. GIRLH1_201013_365.JPG: 1945 ...legs... Girls shocked adults by wearing bobby sox. Too much leg! ... And more legs! Pants covered legs but revealed the contours of the body. They were banned until 1970.
64. GIRLH1_201013_368.JPG: Jilly Towson's School Outfit, 2017
65. GIRLH1_201013_371.JPG: "When I arrived at school...an administrator came up to me and told me that "this is my last warning"...I felt really embarrassed because who isn't embarrassed when getting dress coded in front of people? I felt like that the way administrators dress code us is inconsistent...it's extremely embarrassing...and makes me want to go home and change instead of focusing on what is being taught in class." -- Jilly Towson
66. GIRLH1_201013_377.JPG: Now Shoulders, collarbones, short skirts, and torn jeans -- they all cause trouble! The personal is political.
67. GIRLH1_201013_383.JPG: Americanization Around 1880, Teai-e-se-u-lu-ti-wa, Tra-we-ea-tsa-lun-kia, Tsai au-tit-sa, and Jan-i-uh-tit sa were taken from their Zuni parents and sent to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Everything about their lives changed in an instant -- even their names. In an attempt to erase their cultural identity, the school renamed them Frank Cushing, Taylor Ealy, Mary Ealy, and Jennie Hammaker. Frank and Taylor both died while at the school. Notice how the girls are standing in the "before" picture and sitting in the "after" picture? Were they being schooled? Leaving Home Imagine leaving home at age 4 or 5 to go to school among strangers who don't speak your language. Nothing was familiar -- not the food, the clothes, the voices, or the faces. Learning a Trade Indian boarding schools taught several generations of girls domestic science to train them for the workforce. "Winona," a young Cherokee girl, remembered that "We were also a little bit resentful because we felt that the home economics course was the only course that was open to us."
68. GIRLH1_201013_388.JPG: Making Citizens: Indian Boarding Schools American citizenship is not always desired. As members of sovereign independent nations, American Indian families raised girls to pass on their languages, values, and traditions. In response, U.S. educators physically removed girls and boys from their homes and communities. These educators wanted to erase Indian cultures. And, yet again, the key target was girls because Anglo educators also believed girls would raise the next generation.
69. GIRLH1_201013_390.JPG: Language Matters A people's language carries names, words, and ideas unique to their culture. After many children lost their native language in boarding school, Indian nations began to teach their language formally in tribal schools.
70. GIRLH1_201013_395.JPG: Unschooled: Breaking In Not every girl got to go to school. Some girls stayed home to contribute to the family income by working in fields and factories, or by helping out in family-owned businesses. Other girls faced racism and were blocked from public schools. Still others dropped out of school because of bullying. School is complicated. It holds up a mirror to America -- a mirror that also reflects the determined faces of girls demanding an education. Who's Missing? Many schools refused to educate African American girls. Some went to great lengths to get an education. In 1853 Charlotte Forten could not go to school in Philadelphia. So she had to leave home to attend an all-white school in Boston. "To-day school commenced.... There is one young girl and only one who...has no prejudice against color. I wonder that every colored person is not a misanthrope." -- Charlotte Forten Who's Missing? Farm girls often miss school to help out at home, as Frances Ransome remembered. "Papa was a farmer and he made us work so hard that we didn't go to school half the time. We had to stay at home in the fall and grade [tobacco] and pick cotton and in the spring...we had to plant it." -- Frances Ransome Who's Missing? One in three girls who doesn't conform to gender stereotypes is bullied. One in ten leave school for their own safety. Willow, a transgender teen girl, recalled when she came out as gay. "I went into the locker room and everybody beat me up. I didn't feel safe telling people because I thought they'd beat me up more." -- Willow Who's Missing? In American agriculture, child labor laws don't apply. Today many children work the fields, unable to attend school because they must travel to work long, low-paying hours, even during the school year. Iris, a daughter of migrant workers, recalled. "I started working in the fields when I turned 12...If it weren't for my mom telling me...your school's more important, honestly I would've dropped out." -- Iris
71. GIRLH1_201013_397.JPG: Unschooled: Breaking Out Girls are schooled into what society expects from them when they enter the schoolhouse door. They confront adults' assumptions about what it means to be a girl and what kind of girl they might be. These categories can be uncomfortable and don't fit many girls' images of themselves. Many girls absorb these lessons, but they also talk back. Through words, actions, organizations, and fashion statements, girls tell us who they are and what kind of future they envision for themselves.
72. GIRLH1_201013_399.JPG: (hey, where's my girlhood?) Work
73. GIRLH1_201013_403.JPG: Work (hey, where's my girlhood?) Girls built America. Girls' work gave other women leisure time, they made industries more profitable, their cheap labor sparked a consumer revolution, and their activism reshaped labor laws. Through their labor and activism, they made workplaces safer for everyone. Not all girls had a childhood because they had to work.
74. GIRLH1_201013_410.JPG: Getting Organized "The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers." -- Juliette Gordon Low, 1916 Organizations and the material culture of insignia, uniforms, and awards built a sense of belonging among girls, fostered particular values, and shaped the path not simply to womanhood but also to active participation in local and national affairs.
75. GIRLH1_201013_411.JPG: Louise Davis's Girl Scout Sash, around 1930 Louise Davis and her troopmates broke with tradition and moved their patches from the sleeves of their uniforms to a sash, similar to the Boy Scouts. Davis's sash sported a Golden Eaglet at the top, the highest symbol of achievement in the Girl Scouts at the time. The other patches represent a diverse set of achievements -- including some that challenged gender expectations. Find the one with the tiny wheel. That signified Davis's familiarity with automobile repair, including changing tires.
76. GIRLH1_201013_413.JPG: Commendation to Louise Davis, 1930
77. GIRLH1_201013_415.JPG: Girl Scout Camera, 1950s Scouts recorded their adventures with cameras starting in the early 1900s. Photos served as a long reminder of scouting adventures and friendships.
78. GIRLH1_201013_419.JPG: Louise Davis's Girl Scout Scrapbook, around 1926 Gift of Girl Scouts of the USA. National Historic Preservation Center Louise Davis recorded her memories of scouting in this scrapbook. It gives us a valuable window onto girls and scouting in the early 1900s.
79. GIRLH1_201013_421.JPG: "The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers." -- Juliette Gordon Low, 1916
80. GIRLH1_201013_437.JPG: Girls as Farmworkers In agriculture, girls still work long hours around dangerous chemicals and are unprotected by child labor laws. These are not small family farms -- this is agribusiness. Federal laws passed in 1938 helped protect children under 16. But agriculture was exempt from this legislation, allowing children to continue working in fields across America. Currently half a million children harvest a quarter of our crops.
81. GIRLH1_201013_440.JPG: "[A]ll of a sudden, here comes the airplane throwing all the pesticides at us. We get rashes from the pesticides." -- Dora Perez, 2015
82. GIRLH1_201013_443.JPG: "Our dad always kept an eye on us girls....He knew that foremen would take advantage of young girls." -- Mar�a Elena Durazo, 2017
83. GIRLH1_201013_446.JPG: "It was just super hot because we had to wear...protective clothes like sweaters so the chemicals or sun doesn't hit you." -- Monica Camacho, 2018
84. GIRLH1_201013_448.JPG: Monica Camacho's Hoodie, 2007
85. GIRLH1_201013_456.JPG: Radium Girls, 1917-1935 Radium was all the rage. A glowing radium watch was a must-have item. In factories, young women painted face dials with radioactive material. Unaware that the paint was harmful, they would place the brush tip on their lips to achieve a fine point. After suffering from radium poisoning, several young women sued their employers and brought national attention to the safety of workers. These young women helped create new laws to protect all workers. "And it hurts to smile, but I still smile." -- Grace Fryer, April 1928
86. GIRLH1_201013_459.JPG: "Though we all feel that someone should have warned us. None of us knew that paint paste was dangerous....We were only girls, 15,17, and 19 years old." -- Katherine Schaub, May 1928
87. GIRLH1_201013_464.JPG: "The method of pointing the brush with the lips was taught us, to give the brush an exceedingly fine point." -- Katherine Schaub, April 1928
88. GIRLH1_201013_468.JPG: Radium Watch, 1910s–1930s These watches became popular with American soldiers, who used them to tell time in darkness. The soldiers made these watches fashionable when they returned to the United States.
89. GIRLH1_201013_475.JPG: Advertisement for X-Ray Alarm Clock, 1921–1922
90. GIRLH1_201013_476.JPG: "While I am on strike, I go around to the school yard to watch the kids play." -- Unidentified girl, 1913
91. GIRLH1_201013_479.JPG: Girls as Textile Workers Young girls often worked as spinners or bobbin girls. Spinners ran machines that twisted fiber into yarn. Bobbin girls replaced full bobbins of yarn with empty ones.
92. GIRLH1_201013_484.JPG: "A lot of people think it was a disgrace to work in the mills." -- Helen Robinson, 1970s School and Work for Girl Mill Workers, 1860 Beige -- Neither school nor work Gray -- School only Black -- School and work Blue -- Work only Work only: Age 6-9 -- 2.6% Age 10-13 -- 22.4% Age 14-17 -- 82.3% Age 18-22 -- 96.9% Age 23+ -- 99.1%
93. GIRLH1_201013_488.JPG: "A girl who has arrived at suffrage will listen to an organizer, but a simpering fool who says "Women ain't got brains enough to vote!" or "Women ought to stay at home," is beyond hope." -- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1916
94. GIRLH1_201013_491.JPG: Merrimack Manufacturing Company Throstle Twister, around 1840
95. GIRLH1_201013_495.JPG: Imagine a 12- to 14-hour workday tending this machine, surrounded by the sound of dozens of spinning frames on a factory floor, loose fibers in the air, and the smell of oil.
96. GIRLH1_201013_500.JPG: Lewis Hine Photos of Child Labor, 1900-1910s
97. GIRLH1_201013_503.JPG: "I can see myself now, racing down the alley between the spinning frames, carrying in front of me a bobbin-box bigger than I was." -- Harriet Robinson, 1898
98. GIRLH1_201013_508.JPG: Girls as Striking Workers (Paterson Strike, 1913) On January 27, 1913, over 800 workers from the Henry Doherty Silk Mill went on strike when four members of the workers' committee were fired for organizing. Within a week, workers across 300 mills in Paterson, New Jersey, went on strike. Although the workforce was mainly composed of adult women, many mill girls joined the strike. As factory workers, girls had skin in the game.
99. GIRLH1_201013_510.JPG: "We were frightened when we went in, but we were singing when we went out." -- Unidentified girl, 1913
100. GIRLH1_201013_515.JPG: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World at age 17, June 1913.
101. GIRLH1_201013_517.JPG: Song of the Spinners, 1841 Early on, young spinners often sang songs while they worked: The day is o'er, no longer we toil and spin; For ev'ning's hush withdraws from the daily din. And now we sing with gladsome hearts/The theme of the spinner's song, That labor to leisure a zest imparts/Unknown to the idle throng.
102. GIRLH1_201013_527.JPG: Factory Girl's Song, 1840s
103. GIRLH1_201013_530.JPG: Textile Tools, 1910s
104. GIRLH1_201013_544.JPG: The Factory Girl Girls made up an important part of the factory workforce. They could be found changing bobbins on spinning frames, working in silk factories, and painting watch faces.
105. GIRLH1_201013_546.JPG: "I was only seven years old when I was sent away to take car' of a baby." -- Harriet Tubman, 1828
106. GIRLH1_201013_549.JPG: Cradle, 1876–1900
107. GIRLH1_201013_550.JPG: "From the time a girl can stand -- she's being made to work. Girls are started early with work -- no play ever for a girl. That's just how they was on girls. Work, work, work." -- Pernelia Ross
108. GIRLH1_201013_552.JPG: Iron, early 1800s
109. GIRLH1_201013_555.JPG: Girls as Domestic Workers From slavery to Jim Crow, African American girls worked in fields and in homes. Girls found themselves serving families and becoming lifelong nursemaids and domestic workers. Girls as young as three carried heavy babies, scrubbed dirty diapers, and stayed up late to mend clothing. What would it be like to care for an infant who was also your boss? Clearly they were workers. The photographs make their work invisible.
110. GIRLH1_201013_561.JPG: These pictures were popular because including the little girl showed a family's wealth.
111. GIRLH2_201013_005.JPG: Wellness (body talk) Americans talk about girls' bodies a lot. They have for more than a century. Why? Because girls' bodies are often treated like community property. Body talk -- everything from advice to advertising -- has centered on the ways girls' bodies are different. Such talk often, but not always, determines what it means to be a girl and steers girls toward certain ideas of womanhood. How have girls talked back and taken control of their bodies?
112. GIRLH2_201013_016.JPG: A Girl's Life (embracing yourself)
113. GIRLH2_201013_020.JPG: Embracing Yourself By embracing themselves, girls break barriers every day to change our culture's definitions of girlhood. For many, these rules just don't fit. Jazz Jennings is one of those girls. She shares her girlhood with millions of Americans on television and reminds us that girls can be assigned male at birth and that girlhood comes in many forms.
114. GIRLH2_201013_023.JPG: Jazz Jennings Jazz always knew she "was a girl trapped in a boy's body." As a toddler, she felt a roar of emotions at not being able to communicate what she was experiencing. Jazz's family listened, learned, and supported her. Together, they work to support all transgender children through the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation.
115. GIRLH2_201013_024.JPG: Jazz Jennings' fascination with mermaids began very young. She explained it later saying, "Mermaids are just the most whimsical, mystical creatures of all time. A lot of transgender individuals are attracted to mermaids and I think it's because they don't have any genitals, just a beautiful tail." She decided to make a mermaid tail the summer after sixth grade.
116. GIRLH2_201013_026.JPG: To prepare, Jazz did research online and joined a mermaid tail chat group. She got lots of tips and by summer was ready to start.
117. GIRLH2_201013_028.JPG: Jazz worked from a diver's monofin (a regular pair of flippers fused into one piece.) Then she sketched her tail over that. To make sure the tail fit Jazz perfectly, her friend Casey wrapped Jazz's body in plaster and formed a mold. This made it easier to swim.
118. GIRLH2_201013_030.JPG: Then she had to make scales to cover the outside of the tail. "I couldn't figure out a way to create thousands (no joke) of perfectly even half-circles that would look like fish scales." To see how she figured it out, check out her YouTube.
119. GIRLH2_201013_034.JPG: Managing Awkward Bodies Cramps, headaches, body odor, acne -- all things that came with menarche and "the monthlies." Manufacturers and marketers saw girls and women as a lucrative market for products that could help alleviate aches and pains but also embarrassment.
120. GIRLH2_201013_042.JPG: Managing Awkward Bodies Cramps, headaches, body odor, acne -- all things that came with menarche and "the monthlies." Manufacturers and marketers saw girls and women as a lucrative market for products that could help alleviate aches and pains but also embarrassment.
121. GIRLH2_201013_044.JPG: Cramps Cramps slowed women and girls down. Not everyone had them, but entrepreneurs found a lucrative market in "the monthlies."
122. GIRLH2_201013_046.JPG: Acne In the early 1900s, acne or unhealthy skin could be a sign of puberty but also a range of diseases, including syphilis. Products said they could solve these problems.
123. GIRLH2_201013_050.JPG: Odor Advertisers told girls to worry about body odor. Products flooded the market and reinforced the message that sweet-smelling bodies were healthy and beautiful.
124. GIRLH2_201013_058.JPG: Changing Bodies Over Time As early as the 1920s, menstruation became profitable. Advertisers saw girls as a new niche marker and capitalized on the opportunity to target menstrual products to girls. Many of the Modess ads, and later Procter & Gamble, marketed not only products also disseminated extensive advice to girls. Over time, much of these advise dropped out of ads. Explore the flipbook and note how these ads construct stories about girls and their bodies.
125. GIRLH2_201013_060.JPG: A Girl's Life "Art became a visual way for me to express emotions that were sometimes too hard to put into words." -- Jazz Jennings, 2016 Self Expression Jazz Jennings has been using her talent to express herself since she was a young girl. Through song, drawing, poetry, memoir, and activism, she tells us who she really is. "Glorious Day" by Jazz Jennings There was a day –a glorious day –aya when I knew I wasn't who I really was –for I was a boy –when I was supposed to be a girl I am myself Yes I am myself And I'm gonna flie through the sky or swim in the sea to be whoever I want to be (twice) Oo–oooo–ooo I'm gonna try as hard as I could to change my childhood I'm going to fight for my rights Cause that's the kind of person I am I am, I am, I am
126. GIRLH2_201013_065.JPG: Changing Bodies Much concern and advice addressed how girls' bodies would change with puberty. Cultural and medical authorities alike saw girls as needing expert guidance and, increasingly, products to navigate the path to womanhood.
127. GIRLH2_201013_069.JPG: Birth Control Girls' bodies have long served as a platform for social debate, legislation, and questionable medical practices. In the early 1900s, physicians targeted girls with disabilities for sterilization, preventing them from reproducing. During the 1950s and early 1960s, as rates of teen pregnancy soared, American educators promoted sex education. Into the 1970s and 1980s, girls and women were sterilized. Many women later fought back with lawsuits.
128. GIRLH2_201013_072.JPG: "They said [Depo-Provera was] safe. The only side effect is you might become sterile... And I felt like they done it because we are poor, and we are majority black, and we are supposed to be ignorant and illiterate. [They] just use [us] as a guinea pig." -- Doris Haygood
129. GIRLH2_201013_074.JPG: Visible Woman Model, 1960s The visible woman model was used in the 1960s and 1970s for sex education of girls, in schools and other community forums as well as at home.
130. GIRLH2_201013_078.JPG: Teaching about Reproduction Before the 1890s, children learned about their bodies and reproduction in private. By the late 1910s, public schools began to teach sex education in classrooms. During World War I, fears about venereal disease made sex education a public health issue. After World War II, sex education became more widespread. Government-sponsored films and anatomical models became common tools of sex-ed programs.
131. GIRLH2_201013_081.JPG: Sex Ed vs. Abstinence Advocates of sex education believe that learning about sex and its consequences provides basic knowledge of how to prevent pregnancy. Others believe that teaching girls to abstain from having sex is the best form of birth control. This latter belief has spawned the growth of social clubs in which young girls pledge to not have sex until marriage.
132. GIRLH2_201013_084.JPG: Purity Pledge, 2006
133. GIRLH2_201013_088.JPG: Taylor Jackson's Purity Ring, around 2006 "When I was younger...I felt as though I would be punished by God if I did not remain "pure" until marriage. Now, my ring is more representative of an unconditional self-love. I uphold a vow to always love and respect my body..." -- Taylor Jackson, 2018
134. GIRLH2_201013_092.JPG: Sex Ed Button, 1997 Buttons were distributed at American colleges and universities to advocate for sex education.
135. GIRLH2_201013_101.JPG: Norplant Training Model and Trocar (Implanting Device), 1990 Gift of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories In 1990 the FDA approved the Norplant system. This new form of contraception could be implanted beneath the skin of the arm and later removed.
136. GIRLH2_201013_106.JPG: Depo-Provera, 1992 Gift of Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Inc. Depo-Provera was introduced in 1992 as an alternative to the birth control pill. The hormone progestin is injected into the upper arm or buttock every three months.
137. GIRLH2_201013_112.JPG: Experimenting on Girls of Color Whose bodies have borne the cost of creating greater personal choice for girls and women in the United States? A push for new developments in birth control led to experiments on poor girls and women of color, including Native American, African American, Puerto Rican, and poor white women -- sometimes under coercion or without informed consent.
138. GIRLH2_201013_114.JPG: Mary Alice and Minnie Lee Relf, 1973 Sisters Mary Alice Relf (12 years old) and Minnie Lee Relf (14 years old) were sterilized in 1973 through the Montgomery, Alabama Community Action Program, a federally funded family planning clinic. Their sterilization raised serious questions about racism and medical ethics, and prompted a lawsuit from the Relf family.
139. GIRLH2_201013_117.JPG: Map of eugenical sterilization in the United States, 1935
140. GIRLH2_201013_118.JPG: Poster protesting the forced sterilization of women of color, 1977
141. GIRLH2_201013_121.JPG: Newspaper ad on "population bomb," 1968
142. GIRLH2_201013_123.JPG: Girls as a Health Hazard, 1910s A national worry about young women's sexual expression has informed and motivated much advice, instruction, and popular discussion about girls' bodies and what they should and should not do with them. That concern also led the federal government to launch a national campaign for sex education in the 1910s. This same fear, when paired with racial prejudice about underage immigrant mothers, led to some of the most disturbing practices in American history regarding the sterilization of girls.
143. GIRLH2_201013_126.JPG: "Every girl should first understand herself; she should know her anatomy, including sex anatomy; she should know the epochs of a normal woman's life." -- Margaret Sanger, 1912
144. GIRLH2_201013_128.JPG: New York Call, 1913 Courtesy of Special Collections, Michigan State University Libraries The New York Call ran this page in protest when ordered to shut down Margaret Sanger's advice column.
145. GIRLH2_201013_131.JPG: Margaret Sanger, 1917 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Margaret Sanger Lampe and Nancy Sanger Pallesen, granddaughters of Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger, a writer and nurse, advocated for girls to know and control their own bodies - but only certain girls. Sanger believed that women who were poor or who had mental disabilities should not have children, in order to promote a "healthy" society. While eugenics was popular in Sanger's time, today such ideas are offensive for devaluing certain lives. How do we reckon with this important but complicated historical figure?
146. GIRLH2_201013_137.JPG: American Social Hygiene Association Poster, around 1918 America had a problem with syphilis in the 1910s. This poster warned men against young women who might spread the disease.
147. GIRLH2_201013_140.JPG: Talking About Sex Talking and writing publicly about sex in the United States hasn't been easy, especially when the topic is girls' sexuality. In the early 1900s, such talk could be illegal. The Comstock Act of 1873 forbade sending materials about sex through the mail. So filling the gap on what girls knew about their bodies could send advocates to jail.
148. GIRLH2_201013_143.JPG: Sex Education on Film, 1919-1957 Films were important ways of educating Americans about sex and sexual health. These movies tended to worry about disintegrating social mores.
149. GIRLH2_201013_150.JPG: Menarche = The first menstrual period of a person. Average age of menarche in the uS: 1780 -- 17 1877 -- 15 1901 -- 13.9 1948 -- 12.9 2000 -- 12.3 Some Facts: Not everyone gets a period. It took doctors a long time to connect periods with reproduction. Periods are unpredictable.
150. GIRLH2_201013_156.JPG: What have Americans called it? mother nature the monthlies menstruation code red red tide the flowers the curse monthly visitor period bloody mary aunt flo red badge of courage lady time mother nature's girl time-of-the-month I am having the painters on the rag bad blood
151. GIRLH2_201013_169.JPG: Talking about Menarche Menarche, or the onset of menstruation, generated much advice and many attempts to manage girls' bodies in a public way.
152. GIRLH2_201013_170.JPG: Advertisers Enter the Conversation In the 1920s, girls presented a fertile market for a new product: sanitary napkins. Ads promised liberation from sitting at home making and cleaning cloth napkins, especially for girls who worked. New, disposable products could help girls avoid teasing and increase their sense of personal freedom. If advertisers could make girls loyal to a brand, they had a customer for life.
153. GIRLH2_201013_172.JPG: "In the United States alone, there are approximately 30,000,000 women between the ages of thirteen and forty-five....Commercially, this would mean...a potential market of over 45,000,000,000." -- Lillian Gilbreth, 1927
154. GIRLH2_201013_174.JPG: Lillian Moller Gilbreth, around 1920 Psychologist and efficiency expert Lillian M. Gilbreth studied the market for menstrual pads on behalf of Johnson & Johnson, manufacturers of Modess.
155. GIRLH2_201013_178.JPG: "We didn't have Kotex. We had diapers. [T]hey weren't very comfortable... you'd have to shape it, fold it over, just as you put it on a baby." -- Mary Hanson, 1940s Cotton Diaper, date unknown Before disposable pads and tampons, girls used moss, folded linen, cotton rags, or diapers. Many girls without money used folded rags pinned to their underwear well into the 1900s.
156. GIRLH2_201013_181.JPG: Modess Vending Machine, around 1960 Ever been surprised by your period? Vending machines became a popular way to sell napkins when and where girls needed them -- often unexpectedly, and in bathrooms.
157. GIRLH2_201013_182.JPG: Anything You Can Do Needlepoint, 2018 In recent years, some girls have embraced menstruation as a point of pride. They are changing the conversation about menarche to celebrate girls' bodies and turn body talk into something normal and fun.
158. GIRLH2_201013_187.JPG: Menstrual Products, 1900–2018 Why do we refer to menstrual products as sanitary? The products we use today are the result of an abundance of cello cotton after World War I, marketing studies, and product decisions in the early 1900s. Health advisors wanted to sanitize menstruation to make it less messy and more healthy. And manufacturers wanted to find new markets for products. Packaging reinforced the message that menstruation should be sanitary and convenient.
159. GIRLH2_201013_195.JPG: Girls as Role Models Girls often represent the competing moral, political, and historical claims of communities. They embody many responsibilities and aspirations that are larger than themselves. Why have we asked girls to play these roles? "This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don't belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own." -- Jada Pinkett Smith, 2012
160. GIRLH2_201013_198.JPG: "[I]t is important that [a girl] believe in herself and to know that the mere fact that her skin tones are different does not make her ugly. She is beautiful and needs to know and feel that." -- Joyce Warner, Miss Black America, 1972 "I'm more complicated....I've learned to respect the old ways and old values and now I'm not just a 'California girl,' I'm Chinese." -- Pamela Fong, Miss Chinatown USA, 1974
161. GIRLH2_201013_201.JPG: "We, the Indian people, need to realize that we can only help ourselves to succeed." -- Maxine Henrietta Norris, Miss Indian America, 1973
162. GIRLH2_201013_204.JPG: Yolande Betbeze's Sash, 1951
163. GIRLH2_201013_208.JPG: Miss America Lunch Box, 1972
164. GIRLH2_201013_211.JPG: Miss America's Crown, 1951 Yolande Betbeze donned this tiara and scepter during her reign as Miss America. She accepted the crown but refused to wear the swimsuit, noting that people should see her talents and not just her body. "I'm a singer, not a pinup," she said.
165. GIRLH2_201013_214.JPG: Miss America's Scepter, 1951
166. GIRLH2_201013_225.JPG: Advice Girls' bodies are full of possibilities. And some of those possibilities have scared social authorities. Doctors, advertisers, educators, policymakers, and community leaders advised girls on everything from menstruation to marriage. Sometimes this expert advice collided with the grassroots wisdom of mothers, grandmothers, and friends, and contradicted the reality of being a girl.
167. GIRLH2_201013_235.JPG: Not Checking the Boxes Sometimes gender isn't revealed at birth. Ryan was born intersex. Growing up, he was called by a name traditionally given to girls. But he adopted his name because he felt he possessed "a girl body and a boy brain." He never performed activities expected of a girl, which made him an outcast in his social circles. Sports became an important outlet for self-expression, especially softball. In 2014, after decades of struggling with his gender identity, he legally changed his name to Ryan and transitioned to male. Ryan's story shows how checking boxes as male or female is limited. Those boxes could never fully capture the complex realities of one's gender and sexuality.
168. GIRLH2_201013_238.JPG: "[F]or so many years I lived and hid behind my mask....You need your mask to protect you from harm, but if you don't remove it (or leave it on too long) it obstructs your view and prevents you from seeing. My mask serve(d) as my protection for decades but it was only when I finally had the courage to remove it that I was able to live freely." -- Ryan
169. GIRLH2_201013_240.JPG: Ryan's Letter Jacket Gift of Ryan One of Ryan's crowning achievements was his active participation in high school softball. He received a lettered jacket in May 1988.
170. GIRLH2_201013_245.JPG: Talking About Fitness Talking about girls' health and wellness isn't new. It started around 1900. Experts debated exercise for girls. Many thought that exercise would improve girls' character as well as build stronger bodies, fend off disease, and make healthy future mothers. However, authorities told girls to exercise with caution. Older ideas about too much physical activity as dangerous for girls still held sway.
171. GIRLH2_201013_250.JPG: Cindy Whitehead, 1977 Cindy Whitehead grew up in Southern California, where she aspired to be a professional skateboarder but found few female role models. At age 15, she was the first girl skateboarder featured in the centerfold of a skateboard magazine. One year later, she became a professional "vert" skateboarder.
172. GIRLH2_201013_252.JPG: Fitness: Defying Expectations Girls have taken skateboarding by storm, defying gender expectations. Since the 1960s girls have embraced the sport to showcase athleticism, freedom of movement, and daring behavior that has earned them accolades. They fashioned unique clothing styles and asserted their self-empowerment in a male-dominated sport.
173. GIRLH2_201013_255.JPG: Skateboard, 2013 Gift of Cindy Whitehead and Dwindle Inc. dba Dwindle Distribution Cindy Whitehead designed this prototype and founded the brand "Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word" to make girls more visible in a male-dominated sport. The shape and design of the board is modeled from Sims Skateboards that she rode during her professional career.
174. GIRLH2_201013_257.JPG: Judi Oyama's Skateboard Helmet, 1979 Gift of Judi Oyama Judi Oyama wore this helmet while racing during the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Judi Oyama, one of the few Asian American women in professional skateboarding, made her debut at age 16. In 2018 she was inducted into the Skateboard Hall of Fame.
175. GIRLH2_201013_260.JPG: Cindy Whitehead's Jersey, around 1980 Gift of Cindy Whitehead Cindy Whitehead wore this jersey as a member of the Sims skate team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
176. GIRLH2_201013_263.JPG: Judi Oyama's Trophy, 1979 Gift of Judi Oyama Judi Oyama was awarded this trophy in 1979 at a skateboarding competition in Berkeley, California.
177. GIRLH2_201013_266.JPG: Coming of Age Religious communities have long played a role in defining the transition from girlhood to womanhood with rites of passage. Yet, girls take on these traditions and remake them in different ways. Bat Mitzvah In the synagogue, a 13-year-old boy becomes a man at his bar mitzvah. But no comparable ceremony sanctified girls' coming of age until 1922, when a New York rabbi invented bat mitzvah for his daughter. By the late 1900s, Jewish girls had claimed the millenia-old ritual known as the bar mitzvah for themselves.
178. GIRLH2_201013_269.JPG: Bat Mitzvah In the synagogue, a 13-year-old boy becomes a man at his bar mitzvah. But no comparable ceremony sanctified girls' coming of age until 1922, when a New York rabbi invented bat mitzvah for his daughter. By the late 1900s, Jewish girls had claimed the millenia-old ritual known as the bar mitzvah for themselves.
179. GIRLH2_201013_271.JPG: Sarah Leavitt's Bat Mitzvah Dress, 1983 Gift of Sarah Leavitt Bat mitzvah often meant a new dress and a party. Reminiscent of Victorian romance, this Gunne Sax dress was all the rage in the early 1980s.
180. GIRLH2_201013_277.JPG: Coming of Age Religious communities have long played a role in defining the transition from girlhood to womanhood with rites of passage. Yet, girls take on these traditions and remake them in different ways.
181. GIRLH2_201013_278.JPG: Advice experts promoted jumping rope for girls because they could do it in place while wearing a dress. Jump rope songs often reinforced what girls could be, depending on the lyrics. Janey and Johnny Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G First comes love, Then comes marriage Then comes Janey With a baby carriage.
182. GIRLH2_201013_289.JPG: "[G]irls, in all your gettings get health, it is the foundation of success in every undertaking." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1880
183. GIRLH2_201013_290.JPG: Fitness: Exercise Caution The invention of modern girls in the early 1900s was built on fit, healthy bodies. While competitive sports were often reserved for boys, girls were encouraged to wear looser clothes and engage in exercise that prioritized fitting in. "[G]irls, in all your gettings get health, it is the foundation of success in every undertaking." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1880
184. GIRLH2_201013_295.JPG: Exercise Clubs, 1910
185. GIRLH2_201013_298.JPG: Gym Suit, around 1850 As girls exercised, they also worked on dress reform, trading corsets and long skirts for bloomers and looser styles that allowed for greater freedom of movement.
186. GIRLH2_201013_301.JPG: Americans have claimed girls as community property.
187. GIRLH2_201013_307.JPG: A Girl's Life When do you become an adult?
188. GIRLH2_201013_311.JPG: "Teens," 1950s
189. GIRLH2_201013_314.JPG: Lois Greene's Carousel Skirt, 1954
190. GIRLH2_201013_317.JPG: "Teens," 1950s After World War II, teen girls demanded clothing made just for them. Finding nothing in department stores, they got creative and made their own clothes or remixed from boys' closets. When marketers and retailers gave in to these demands, it marked the beginning of teen fashion.
191. GIRLH2_201013_322.JPG: Most girls wore skirts, the dominant and gender-defining item in every closet.
192. GIRLH2_201013_331.JPG: "Today and always we remember and honor our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. They are not forgotten. Bring them justice. Bring them home." -- Isabella Aiukli Cornell Isabella Aiukli Cornell's Prom Dress, 2018 Girls have not only used fashion for self-expression, but also to promote social change. Isabella Aiukli Cornell, a Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma citizen, used her prom dress to call attention to the systemic violence and abuse faced by Indigenous women. She chose the color red in solidarity for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's movement.
193. GIRLH2_201013_342.JPG: Girls Have Fun, 1890s-1910s Girls fashioned identities and claimed freedom by adopting new styles such as fanciful hats and shirtwaists. Hats said who could buy the latest styles. Working-class girls copied popular looks for less by doing the work themselves. Shirtwaists were easy to remix. Unlike dresses, a girl could mix and match with different skirts, and wear them without corsets.
194. GIRLH2_201013_346.JPG: "The shirtwaist will be with us more than ever this summer. Women are wearing shirtwaists because they are comfortable, because they can be made to fit any form, and because they are mannish." -- Indianapolis Journal, 1900
195. GIRLH2_201013_348.JPG: Shirtwaist, around 1910
196. GIRLH2_201013_351.JPG: Hatpins, around 1900 Young women used hatpins to keep their large fashion statements attached to their heads and add another decorative element to the hat. While one end was decorative, the other could be a deadly weapon. Americans worried about young, single women alone in cities, and journalists seized on the hatpin as a form of self-defense against sexual assault.
197. GIRLH2_201013_354.JPG: Dangerous Girls 1920s
198. GIRLH2_201013_356.JPG: Movie Icons Movies provided style icons that girls copied, adapted, and used to refashion themselves. Some stars bobbed their hair and wore pants. Girls copied and spread their boyish fashions, upsetting parents and authorities.
199. GIRLH2_201013_360.JPG: Josephine Baker, 1927
200. GIRLH2_201013_362.JPG: Anna May Wong, 1932
201. GIRLH2_201013_365.JPG: Dolores Del R�o, 1927
202. GIRLH2_201013_368.JPG: Clara Bow, 1927
203. GIRLH2_201013_372.JPG: Irene Castle, 1919
204. GIRLH2_201013_374.JPG: Evening Dress, around 1925 Gift of Mrs. Hebert Campbell This dress was made to party. The loose fit made dancing easy and more energetic.
205. GIRLH2_201013_377.JPG: Shoes with Baby Louis Heels, 1900-1924 Lucky Strike Cigarette Case, around 1928 Advertising set a new standard for girls, telling them that smoking and a thin shape were sexy. Gillette Ladies Razor, around 1920 Sleek flapper fashions emphasized bare arms and legs. Many young women began shaving.
206. GIRLH2_201013_381.JPG: About 1920s Courtesy of Scurlock Studio Records, around 1905–1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History Girls took the styles they saw on movie screens and made them their own. Girls' fashion choices upset many cultural authorities. Journalists, religious leaders, and others warned of the dangers posed by modern girls. They made new gender-bending ideas -- such as bobbing their hair -- popular. Americans have forgotten that cutting one's hair was a radical move; short hair upended ideas about female respectability.
207. GIRLH2_201013_384.JPG: Remaking Style When it came to remixing, girls in the 1920s borrowed ideas from magazines, advertising, and music. In turn, the fashion industry watched girls for new styles.
208. GIRLH2_201013_387.JPG: Paper dolls allowed girls to play with fashion.
209. GIRLH2_201013_388.JPG: "No decent girls had ever had their hair cut short." -- Ernest Hemingway, reflecting on the 1920s
210. GIRLH2_201013_389.JPG: Some girls weren't so daring. Modest girls coiled their hair to give the appearance of a bob without actually going that far.
211. GIRLH2_201013_391.JPG: In 1924, 3,500 [girls had their hair bobbed in one New York salon.
212. GIRLH2_201013_393.JPG: Flour Sack Dress, 1959
213. GIRLH2_201013_401.JPG: Making Do, 1930s The Great Depression saw a mix of Hollywood glamour and DIY fashion. Resourceful girls made do with inexpensive materials such as feed sacks, which they refashioned into dresses and shirts. Repurposing feed sacks into dresses lasted well into the 1960s.
214. GIRLH2_201013_403.JPG: Zoot Suit Girls, 1940s Girls on the West Coast adopted and adapted zoot suits, made popular by working-class men in cities across the United States in the 1940s. During an era of rationing cloth, young Latinas donned loose pants and oversized jackets, challenging gendered expectations and authority.
215. GIRLH2_201013_407.JPG: During World War II, women and girls were asked to support the war efforts by conserving cloth. Zoot suit girls bucked the norm and used more fabric.
216. GIRLH2_201013_410.JPG: Ration Book, 1942
217. GIRLH2_201013_414.JPG: "The girls wore their own style of dress, consisting of a long finger-tip length coat or letterman's sweater, draped slacks or a short, full skirt above or just to their brown knees....They usually made up heavily with mascara and lipstick, and the favorite hairstyle was a high pompadour with flowers and earrings." -- Beatrice Griffith, 1947
218. GIRLH2_201013_422.JPG: DIY Fashion, 1960s Teens used cheap, thrifted, and remixed fashion to talk back to authority. Many wanted to opt out of consumer culture completely. Others used cutting-edge style to define themselves, protest mainstream culture, and shock adults.
219. GIRLH2_201013_424.JPG: Remixed Blue Jeans, 1960s–1970s
220. GIRLH2_201013_430.JPG: Janis Joplin, 1969 Psychedelic patterns moved from album covers to fashion and defined hip style.
221. GIRLH2_201013_431.JPG: "Denim, once the humble fabric of cowboys, farmers and hippies, has invaded every corner of fashion." -- Patricia K. Grant, 1973
222. GIRLH2_201013_435.JPG: Paper Dress, 1967
223. GIRLH2_201013_438.JPG: Fashion Forward, 1960s While some girls chose clothing that challenged gender roles, others adopted fashion-forward clothing that was daring and disruptive in its own way. They used fashion to challenge adult ideas of propriety.
224. GIRLH2_201013_439.JPG: Twiggy Thermos, 1967 Even young girls include the latest style icons in their lunchboxes.
225. GIRLH2_201013_442.JPG: Vogue's Basic Design, pattern book, 1969 Vogue put the latest styles within reach of any girl who could sew.
226. GIRLH2_201013_443.JPG: Unisex Skirt by Rudi Gernreich, 1970
227. GIRLH2_201013_448.JPG: DIY Fashion, 1960s Teens used cheap, thrifted, and remixed fashion to talk back to authority. Many wanted to opt out of consumer culture completely. Others used cutting-edge style to define themselves, protest mainstream culture, and shock adults.
228. GIRLH2_201013_451.JPG: Revolutionary Styles, 1970s Whether wearing unisex clothing or loose dashikis, young women incorporated fashion into political movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. Declarations of beauty could be revolutionary, defy stereotypes, and have global influence.
229. GIRLH2_201013_459.JPG: Dashiki, around 1970
230. GIRLH2_201013_464.JPG: Making Up Girls and young women have used makeup to change their looks for centuries. But while girls once kept their makeup practices private, they now share those techniques openly online.
231. GIRLH2_201013_467.JPG: Dressing Table, around 1820 Makeup, 1890–1920 Talk about makeup secrets! Dressing tables from around 1800, such as this one, hid cosmetics in an effort to pretend that girls didn't use them. By 1900 early mass-produced makeup catered to racist views by whitening skin with unlisted ingredients such as toxic lead powder. The process of getting "made up" has long reflected hidden agendas related to gender and race.
232. GIRLH2_201013_474.JPG: Subcultural Stylin', 1980s-1990s
233. GIRLH2_201013_478.JPG: Michelle Gonzales's Shirt, 1984
234. GIRLH2_201013_479.JPG: Subcultural Stylin', 1980s-1990s Though remembered in popular culture as an era of power suits, supermodels, and the motto "greed is good," the 1980s and 1990s saw the proliferation of subcultures, including punk and hip-hop, in which girls were active participants in pushing back against the mainstream. Activism against AIDS in the 1980s also inspired a generation of queer youth to fashion a culture for themselves.
235. GIRLH2_201013_481.JPG: Punk As an underground culture outside of corporate control, punk gave girls the means to express unruly politics and feelings in unconventional ways.
236. GIRLH2_201013_487.JPG: Zines, 1980s–1990s Girls used zines, among other forms of self-expression, to redefine fashion and body image, reject consumer culture, and express anger -- something girls were not supposed to be.
237. GIRLH2_201013_488.JPG: "I bought Aqua Net and Maybelline eyeliner in black, the kind with the pointy red cap that I watched my chola cousins in LA heat with a match before applying to their eyes, rimming the water line dark black and penciling all around the outside, too, enhancing the almond shape of their eyes with a long black wing." -- Michelle Gonzales, recalling the 1980s
238. GIRLH2_201013_494.JPG: Karen Maeda Allman's "Armor," 1984 "These bracelets...are part of what I called my 'armor,' and I wore many layers of these types of items when I was performing. I also wore the armor to shows, partly as decoration and partly for protection if I was on the dance floor in a club." -- Karen Maeda Allman, 1984
239. GIRLH2_201013_503.JPG: Nameplate Earrings, 2018
240. GIRLH2_201013_506.JPG: B-Girl Laneski's Puma Sneakers, 1984 B-girls adopted particular fashions, like these shoes, to dance and make a style statement.
241. GIRLH2_201013_509.JPG: Girls and Hip-Hop In the black expressive culture of hip-hop, girls found new avenues to express their pain and their joy through rap, dance, and a brash style for carrying themselves through the world.
242. GIRLH2_201013_511.JPG: Selena, 1993 Selena designed her own costumes.
243. GIRLH2_201013_513.JPG: Curator Kathy drew this in 1986. MTV fused music and fashion.
244. GIRLH2_201013_516.JPG: What's iconic about your fashion in the 2000s? We couldn't do all the fashion, so we're handing it back to you. What are you wearing? #FashionRemix
245. GIRLH2_201013_519.JPG: "Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak."
246. GIRLH2_201013_522.JPG: Subcultures pushed back against the mainstream.
247. GIRLH2_201013_552.JPG: Temporarily Unavailable
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