I arrived at this version of a mock label for one of my favorite photographs of all time during my night class, Gender in American Visual Culture with Dr. Elizabeth Eikmann, at Washington University in St. Louis.
Nina Leen
American, c. 1914-1995
In many ways, the years following the First World War and leading up to her involvement in the Second mark America’s adolescence. The growing pains of the Great Depression gave way to a nascent demographic that would exert outsize influence on consumer culture and popular media for years to come. The invention of the teenage girl made movie stars and musicians more important. It allowed for getting lost in one’s daydreams and legitimized the ritualistic sharing of secrets over the telephone. LIFE photographer Nina Leen provides a window into a transitory way of life, which is primarily interested in becoming oneself.