This video comes from 1929 and features Edna Peters, a teenage girl from Miami who won a contest that brought her over to England as part of a cultural exchange. She remarks that the “typical American girl” is expected to be chewing gum, but insists to her new British friends that this is not always the case.

discussion

What are your initial reactions to the “typical American girl” of 1929? Is she what you would expect to be characterized as the typical teenager of the time? Why or why not?

If there were a contest for the “typical American girl” of today, what are some of the characteristics that she would possess? What is the role of media in helping to shape the ideas for what this typical American girl would be like?