Teenage Girls 1944 | The Invention Of Teenagers: LIFE And The Triumph Of Youth Culture | LIFE.com

The Invention Of Teenagers
Portrait of girl (16-17) listening to vinyl records in room
Portrait of girl (16-17) listening to vinyl records in room

Historians and social critics differ on the specifics of the timeline, but most cultural observers agree that the strange and fascinating creature known as the American teenager -- as we now understand the species -- came into being sometime in the early 1940s.

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