Download or read book The New Girl written by Sally Mitchell and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1880 the concept of girlhood as a separate stage of existence was barely present. But in the decades that followed, due in part to changes in the legal definition of childhood, a new cultural category was inscribed in a flood of popular books and magazines. Indeed, by the turn of the century working-class and middle-class girls were beginning to control enough of their own time and pocket money that publishing for them was a lucrative business.