Motion pictures have been one of the forces that have both shaped and reproduced adolescent femininity. Films not only reflect culture--they help to create it. So it is worth looking at films to see what messages they gave girls--and adults--about what girls were and should be like. Scheiner uses film as a window into the cultural meanings of female adolescence, and explores how those meanings changed over time. She looks at how female adolescence has been constructed in film, focusing on the period from 1920 to 1950. She contextualizes representations of female adolescence by looking at...