The Scramble for the Teenage Dollar

Creating the Youth Market in Mid-Century Canada

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, and especially the biggest department store of the time: Eaton's. Katharine Rollwagen dives into consumer magazines, Eaton's archives, and mail-order catalogues to discover how the commercialized Canadian teenager was created.

Packed with insights about how retailers and advertisers attempted to shape the look, bodies, and behaviour of young Canadians, this 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.

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