Teenage Fads of Years Ago
The 20th Century is known for teenager fads – when young people in their teens loved to try new and adventurous things. Here are a few examples over the years that you or an ancestor did as a teen.
In the 1910s the newest personal item was the Kodak or Brownie camera. Especially girls loved to have a photo of their friends or places they visited. See if a family album of photos from the 1910s is in any of the family heirlooms – they do exist.
Dance contests started in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s. Only young people had enough stamina to participate for the long haul so it wasn’t an activity that older people could really spoil for the youngsters. In the 1930s these dance contests became more desperate since many families were grasping at any way to earn extra money during the Depression.
The Roaring Twenties were also known for the girl teens for having ‘Bobbed Hair’ another trend that teen girls from the 1920s the young women embraced, and even those who didn’t cut their hair usually learned how to style it so that it at least looked like a bobbed hairstyle.
Starting in the 1930s teens began to meet at inexpensive burger joints to socialize after school, on date nights, and after school games or events. The hamburger became the favorite cheap food at this time.
After the end of World War 2 in 1945, a new world for teenage girls opened up – that of appearing in beauty pageants. There had been pageants in the 1910s and 1920s but big super pageants just explored in the late 1940s and continued into the 1950s and 1960s. You just might have several female ancestors who were in a beauty pageant.
Teenagers and the birth of ‘Rock-n-Roll’ in the 1950s was just the most important fad for teenagers then. The big star was Elvis Presley.
With rock-n-roll continuing in the 1960s, a big dance fad for teenagers was the ‘Twist’. Other dances would come but the Twist was a favorite for years.
Photo: Bobbed Hair Styles of the 1920s.
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
The Mid-1800s – Fads of Our Ancestors
Fad – 1890s – Photo of One’s Back
< Return To Blog Besides dance contests in the 30s, Grandpa also entered a rocking chair competition. He may have won it, I can't remember. Found out from a newspaper article.Sara N Martin 9/06/22
How about that - rocking chair contest !!
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