Teenagers
A teenager is a person between the ages of 13 and 19 (ages that have the word "teen" at the end in English), but broadly describes a social class characterized by unique subcultures, behaviors, habits, and psychological development.
The concept of "teenager" as we know it today did not exist before the mid-20th century and the word was rarely used before the 1940s. It is a post-war American concept, and only in the last century have we respected that teenagers are in a heavy transition period as they grow from childhood to adulthood.
Etymology
The word "teenager" originates in the English (USA) language as the ages that have the word "teen" at the end. There may not be an equivalent in other languages, so they might use the same word or the equivalent of "adolescent."1
In other English-speaking countries there were few mentions of the word as "teen," "teen age," "Teen Ager" and "Teen-Ager," and "Teenes" throughout history beginning in the 1590s. Prior to that, the suffix "-teen" dates back to Old English2. These terms were used as a descriptor for a certain age group and not as a unique identity.
History
Before this cultural shift, human development was divided between child or adult. Childhood ended abruptly with puberty (ages 12-14). Working-class youth immediately entered full-time labor (factories, mines, or farms), while wealthier young people were arranged into marriages.
The social infrastructure for a "teenage group" to emerge originated in several events (and likely more).
- Widespread adoption of the automobile (1920s-1930s)3. Cars gave young people physical freedom from parental supervision, allowing a distinct social and dating scene to grow. Previous to this, romantic courtship was supervised and ritualistic. The car took courtship out of the house and provided young people with a private, mobile room. The concept of "dating" grew and shifted the focus of romance from family strategy to compatibility. The car also expanded a teenager's social map; previously, they walked or rode bicycles and this limited their friendships to a limited boundary.
- Stricter child labor laws and compulsory education (1930s)4. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act banned full-time child labor in the US, and this suddenly pulled millions of young people out of factories. Because local communities had been gathering since the 1910s to fund and build free, public high schools around the country (High School Movement5), there were plenty of buildings to send those young people to. US states began rewriting their education codes to raise compulsory education ages to 16 or 18 with minimum days attended per year and worse consequences for non-compliance.
- Lacking supervision and wartime outlook (1940s)6. World War II effectively emptied American communities of traditional adult supervision as fathers and older brothers were shipped overseas to fight, and mothers entered the wartime workforce. Suddenly, young people had hours of autonomy every day and became heads of households with minimal supervision. For those turning 16 or 17 in 1943 and 1944, the future was certain and terrifying. This created a psychological wartime carpe diem moment where the inevitability made the present moment seem much more vibrant and opportunistic.
- Post-war economic conditions (1950s)7. Thanks to the post-war economic boom, middle-class families had disposable income and young people were given allowances, which made them a targetable consumer demographic. For the first time in history, millions of young people had money to spend, but they weren't interested in kid stuff or adult stuff. More importantly, they had no responsibility for rent, groceries, or utilities.
On December 11, 1944, LIFE magazine published a photo feature titled "Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Own," which followed a group of twelve 15 to 17 year old girls in a suburb of St. Louis, MO8. The piece documented their habits, like listening to records at the music store, talking on the phone, eating, studying, dating, and weekend sleepovers.
On June 11, 1945, LIFE magazine ran a follow-up titled "Teen-Age Boys: Faced With War, They are Just the Same as They Have Always Been" to document teenage boys during wartime9. This time in Des Moines, IA, the same photographer Nina Leen captured the daily lives of sleeping, eating, and hanging out. They worked on cars, snacked, got into shenanigans, touched their hair, decorated their rooms with interest-based artifacts, and read magazines and comic books. The article was heavier than the one on girls as it somberly acknowledged that every boy involved were likely to be at war in a few years.
LIFE magazine did not create the concept of the teenager, but it gave it a word, description, and image, by documenting the impacts of multiple clashing events.
Links
- Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World
- LIFE With Postwar Teens: Photos of Fads from Around the U.S. in 1948
- ‘Wow, Quel Babes!’: American Teenagers in Paris in the 1950s
- There’s Quaint, and Then There’s a Story on Phone-Obsessed Teens from 1956
- LIFE Photography Spotlight: Nina Leen
Notes
3 Middletown: A Study in American Culture by Robert Staughton Lynd
4 Why the United States Led in Education: Lessons From Secondary School Expansion, 1910 to 1940
5 Wikipedia: High school movement
6 The American Home Front and World War II
7 A New $10 Billion Power: The U. S. Teen-Age Consumer
8 The Invention of Teenagers: LIFE and the Triumph of Youth Culture
