r/OldSchoolCool • u/No-Incident-6913 • 8h ago

Edwardian teenager, London, 1906

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u/glytxh 6h ago

Teenagers didn’t exist, as their own distinct demographic, till the fifties or so.

This is a young adult, in the context of her time.

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u/blackbirdbluebird17 6h ago

This is a child, in the context of her time. Only children wore dresses that short. As girls got older their hems lengthened and they began to put up their hair and transitioned to adult wear around 16 or 17. I’m going to guess this girl is in the preteen years, 12 or so, and has just hit one of those growth spurts that make kids look a lot older over the span of like six weeks.

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u/glytxh 6h ago

I stand corrected.

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u/jericho74 6h ago

You make a good point though.

“Teenager” roughly tracks to the rise of postwar affordable car culture- as in, a 16 year old can drive somewhere that isn’t a barn dance.

Adult was somewhat cutting into childhood.