Children’s Voices in the Boy’s Own Paper and the Girl’s Own Paper, 1880–1900

Abstract

This chapter explores the commonalities between nineteenth-century boys’ and girls’ culture by comparing the correspondence sections in the Religious Tract Society’s Boy’s Own Paper (1879–1967) and Girl’s Own Paper (1880–1956), two of the longest-running British children’s magazines in the Victorian and Edwardian period, particularly in how they represent ideas of employment, health, and hobbies. While the letters submitted to the magazines are rarely ever quoted, this correspondence provides evidence of nineteenth-century children’s voices. These voices are, inevitably, mediated and transformed through their publication in the periodicals; yet, they demonstrate that British children’s interests in the late nineteenth century are not dissimilar, reflecting common interests, concerns, and anxieties. They demonstrate the extent to which child readers were invested in the communities created through their magazines.