ABSTRACT
Beginning in 1898, the Girl's Realm was keenly interested in developing a readership that was both contemporary and modern. The changed circumstances of girls’ lives combined with the availability of a wide variety of reading material meant that a new entrant into the field of girls’ publishing had to be unique. Although the magazine's editors were determined to remain apolitical, they nonetheless used current events to create an ethos of bravery and heroism for its girl readers. The Boer War, the dawn of the twentieth century, the women's suffrage campaign, and the rise of adventure fiction for girls were some of the influences that appeared in the Girl's Realm. Unlike the other girls’ periodicals I have discussed, the Girl's Realm is significantly less constrained by nineteenth-century ideas of femininity. Instead, the magazine uses current events to fashion girlhood as a time of bravery and courage. The girls in its pages are educated and feminine, yet the Girl's Realm focuses on girl heroes. Involved in adventures both at home and abroad, girls are capable and confident when they need to be. Alongside adventure stories set in the Colonies are equally thrilling stories of bravery closer to home, and non-fiction articles encourage girls to seek opportunities beyond the domestic sphere. The “girl's realm” of the title encompasses the feminine ideal, but also includes an equally important heroic ideal, signalling a shift in thinking about girls and their “realm” as they moved into areas that were traditionally considered male. Furthermore, “realm” suggests imperialism, as the magazine also claims the imperial realm for its girl readers. Importantly, however, owing in part to wider social and cultural shifts in English society alongside changes to the market for girls’ periodicals, in its final years the magazine began to retreat from its heroic ideal and emphasized a return to domesticity.
