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Bedroom Culture Can No Longer Be Contained

Through much of recorded history, the world of girls has been relegated to the home, and in recent history, the bedroom. From the domestic sphere of embroidery and music lessons to teenyboppers experimenting with makeup and romance, the cultural impact of girls has been largely obscured from mainstream history due to its existence behind closed doors.  Girls have been active in shaping, creating, and defining culture for as long as culture has existed, whether history books make note of them or not.

In the 21st century, "bedroom culture" has entered the half public/half private sphere of the Internet, and finally, girls everywhere have the power to write their stories in places where the world can see.

The year 2020 is an extraordinarily significant moment in our history. When the COVID-19 outbreak is all said and done, this time period will surely be studied by scholars across disciplines, but whose experiences will be remembered?

Girls are being affected by this unprecedented pandemic in a wide variety of ways, and your part in history matters. On this website, you can learn about the rich history of girls as storytellers and cultural producers, and learn new and creative ways to tell your own story.

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THE TUTORIALS

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GIRLS AS STORYTELLERS

The Commonplace Book

Learn about the importance of girls' journals and diaries throughout history, then learn how to take your journaling to the next level through the creation of a commonplace book.

GIRLS AS CHANGE-MAKERS

The Zine

Become a real rebel girl as you learn about girls' involvement in independent music scenes, counter culture, and socio-political activism. You'll then learn how to create your own zine to spread your art and ideas with a larger audience.

GIRLS AS ARTISTS

The Self Portrait

Don't feel bad about taking that selfie! Look famous self portraits from history and learn the power in portraying one's self through art. Then learn new techniques for using your selfie to really express yourself.

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ABOUT THIS SITE

a project of NEW 490 Girl's Culture at the
University of Alabama

The Author: Hi! My name is Annabeth Mellon. I'm a 22-year-old college senior (pictured at right when I was a Girl myself, on my 16th birthday) studying Gender and Media with a dream of becoming a filmmaker one day. I spend my summers teaching middle school girls how to make movies. My background is in poetry and I also dabble in art, mostly character designs. (I'm also a pisces/scorpio/scorpio, for those that need to know.)


The Site: This project was produced for NEW 490 Girl's Culture, an interdisciplinary seminar which introduces students to the key debates, concepts, and questions raised by the emerging field of Girls’ Studies. Students examine the history and social construction of girlhood in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as draw on girls’ lived experiences, activism, and cultural productions, in order to challenge established definitions of “girls” and “girlhood.”

The goal of this website is to expand upon the concepts of the course to create a new resource for girls in the 21st century, a way to give girls agency in documenting their own lives.

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