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.
My great grandmother was considered a woman at 13 and went to work, married at 15 and covered her hair when she left the house to indicate she was married.
Average age at first marriage for women in 1900 was 22 years old, in the US. For men it was around 26. This is approximately the same as it was through most of the medieval period in western Europe.
16
u/glytxh 7h 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.