I started working at Glasgow Women’s library in 2009 as the national lifelong learning development worker. I’ve always felt GWL is a place where everyone and everything is cherished – library users, learners, staff, volunteers as well as the books, stories, artefacts and histories of women we have in our archive. I’ve felt able to grow here, to push myself, be creative and learn from everyone I’ve come into contact with.
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is talking to people around Scotland about the library’s collections and one of my favourite things from the archive is our collection of Girls Annuals. I was an avid reader from an early age but we didn’t have many books in our house so these sort of annuals were my first reading material after I’d graduated from my brother’s Beano – the stories and the characters in them were mostly ridiculously far from my own life experience. I didn’t have a pony or a hockey stick and I remember feeling quite put out when I realised around the age of ten that I wouldn’t be going to boarding school, like the girls in Bunty and School Friend, but I still loved them and in my early teens became particularly obsessed with Jackie, which was full of quizzes (“Do You Enjoy Being a Girl?”, “Are You a Shrinking Violet?”) as well as pop stars, fashion, aspirational dieting and all sorts of insidious messages, mainly around the theme that the main things a girl should set her sights on were a 22 inch waist and a nice boyfriend.
I grew out of these annuals in the end, escaped from Jackieland and went to university, but I was very excited to discover them in our archive. They’re a link for many women back to the delights and embarassments of their own girlhood, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and they are very accessible. I’ve shared the annuals with lots of groups, from women in prison to women’s history groups, young women and older women. There have been conversations about the sort of expectations and pressures that were put on girls then and now, conversations about how women’s lives have changed for the better (or not!) and lots of laughter – especially over the Jackie’s resident agony aunts – “Dear Cathy and Claire, my Mum’s always spoiling my fun… I’ve got frizzy hair… What is French kissing?” These sort of artefacts really speak to lots of women of all ages and backgrounds in many different ways. They’re great fun but also fascinating social documents – so pop in and have a look yourself!
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