Constructing a Culture

Nina Leen

Preeminent photojournalist Nina Leen, employed by LIFE magazine in the 1940s primarily photographed animals, women and teenager. December 11, 1944 marked Leen's first coverage of teenage girls, "Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of their Own". In this article, through photographs, Leen introduced LIFE audiences to "the time in the life of every American girl when the most important thing in the world is to be one of a crowd of other girls and to act and speak and dress exactly as they do. This is the teen age. Some 6,000,000 U.S. teen-age girls live in a world of their own--a lovely, gay, enthusiastic, funny, and blissful society almost untouched by the war." 

Seven months later, June 11, 1945, Leen revisted the teenager's livelihood, but this time photographed boys. The photo-essay, "Teen-Age Boys: Faced with war, they are the same as they have always been," ... 



As American life transitioned postwar, the livelihood of teenage girls flourished. "Tulsa Twins: They Show how much the Teen-age World has Changed" showcases the transformation in teen girls, such as presenting cutting-edge, trendsetting, “New Look” clothing that made girls look more flirty and feminine. 

In an up-close-and-personal photo shoot, serving as representatives for all teen girls nationwide, identical twins Barbara and Betty Bounds show off their fashion style, social life, and domestic tasks. “Tulsa Twins” welcomes you visually into the fashionable social world of middle-class, postwar teen girlhood, where being a lady requires domestic responsibility and acceptance to be “one of the crowd,” and in which “parties with boys are their favorite things in life.”

 

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