Studies how the identity of the Canadian teenager shifted in the twentieth century into that of a consumer.
Co-ed, junior miss, grad, teenster. From the late 1930s to the 1950s, the teenager emerged as a distinct and ideal market segment. The Scramble for the Teenage Dollar explores how consumption became an integral part of being a teenager.
This nascent consumer—always a white, middle-class, heterosexual high school student—had purchasing power that demanded recognition. At least, that was the image fashioned by Canadian advertisers and retailers, especially the biggest department store of the time: Eaton’s. Katharine Rollwagen dives into consumer magazines, Eaton’s archives, and mail-order catalogs to discover how the commercialized Canadian teenager was created.
Packed with insights about how retailers and advertisers attempted to shape the look, bodies, and behavior of young Canadians, The Scramble for the Teenage Dollar is an intriguing look at the power of corporate actors to influence popular understandings of growing up. It also reveals the roots of the hyper-consumerism common among young people today.
Introduction
1 Calling All Co-eds! The Teenager Appears in Canadian Women's Magazines
2 Act Your Age: Authority and the Meanings of Teenage Consumption
3 Students in the Store: Making Space for Teenagers at Eaton's
4 Tailored for Teens: Selling Age, Gender, and Sophistication
5 Eaton's Goes to School: Commodifying Students and Educating Consumers
Conclusion
Notes; Selected Bibliography; Image Credits; Index
Katharine Rollwagen is a professor in the history department of Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and a grateful guest on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. Her work has appeared in the Urban History Review, Histoire sociale/Social History, Historical Studies in Education, and the Canadian Historical Review.
