ABSTRACT
Following the launch of the first girls' periodical in 1869, magazines aimed at a young female readership proliferated and diversified. By 1920 magazines catered for adolescent girls of all ages and social classes. Schoolgirl fiction magazines, typified by School Friend, Schoolgirls' Own and girls' Crystal, are perhaps the most famous of these girls' magazines. Another, and very different type of schoolgirl paper sought to provide both instruction and information alongside light fiction entertainment. These papers, in particular the highly successful girls' Own Paper, and also School-Days and the Schoolgirls' Pictorial, were welcomed by teachers and even stocked in libraries. While both the girls' Own Paper and the School Friend targeted schoolgirls of this period, an extensive range of other magazines addressed the young and single working girl. These magazines built on markets identified by the successful late Victorian and Edwardian papers such as girls' Realm (1898–1915), girls' Friend (1899–1931) and girls' Weekly (1912–1922). Although girls' Friend and girls' Weekly did survive the war they emerged into a post-war world of heightened competition, taking their place alongside an extensive list of titles aimed at working girls including girls' Favourite (1922–1927), Peg's Paper (1919–1940) and, somewhat later, Miss Modern (1930–1940). Although marked by significant differences, these working girls' papers shared a preoccupation with romantic fiction.
