ABSTRACT
This chapter maps the relationship between Disney Channel, tween audiences, and girl performers in order to illustrate how the conglomerate has developed young female performers as the franchisable elements in some of its most popular and lucrative properties in the early years of the twenty-first century. It explores how The Walt Disney Company, as a networked corporate entity, understands and envisions contemporary US girls and girlhood discourse, as conveyed in corporate reports, executive speaking engagements, and popular journalism. The chapter aims to elucidate some of the logics of the transmedia franchises. As televisions appeared in more US homes in the 1950s, The Walt Disney Company found ways to finance and promote its new Disneyland theme park while generating consumer audiences for Disney texts and products old and new. While Disney Channel programming initially aimed to appeal to both boys and girls, its prime-time schedule at the turn of the millennium focused more on representations of girlhood and on tween girl audiences.
