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Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide
Available again for a whole new generation of readers, the original 1950s popularity guide that was the inspiration for teen author Maya Van Wagenen’s memoir Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek !
Filled with fun tips and vintage wisdom, Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide offers advice and guidance for teens who want to be poised, self-confident, and “shiny bright.” Betty covers topics ranging from “Figure Problems,” “Good Grooming,” and “What to Wear Where” to hints on dating, hosting a great party, and becoming “the most popular girl in your set!”
Filled with fun tips and vintage wisdom, Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide offers advice and guidance for teens who want to be poised, self-confident, and “shiny bright.” Betty covers topics ranging from “Figure Problems,” “Good Grooming,” and “What to Wear Where” to hints on dating, hosting a great party, and becoming “the most popular girl in your set!”
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
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326 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 12, 2020
I love all things vintage and retro and this was a fun read. It was written in 1953 by a teenage fashion model. Parts of it are obviously a bit dated, while other parts are timeless. There were also parts that I skipped and skimmed – such as dating or whatever – things that were not relevant to me.
Oh, one more thing. I love smelling books. This book has the absolute best aroma ever and I couldn’t stop sniffing it!
If you are planning on reading Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, this book should be read first. I liked this one more than “Popular”.
Here are my favorite quotes:
“Someone once told me to stand as if I wore a beautiful jewel that I wanted to show off at my bosom, and I think perhaps it is the best advice that I can pass on to you.”
“Maybe you ask, what has this all got to do with popularity? The answer is that popularity depends on your ability to get along with people, all kinds of people, and the better you learn to adjust to each situation the more easily you will make friends. You will find that you can make those adjustments more successfully if you have yourself well in hand. And the only way to get yourself in hand is to know yourself, to analyze yourself, to turn yourself inside and out as you would an old pocketbook--shake out the dust and tidy up the contents.”
Oh, one more thing. I love smelling books. This book has the absolute best aroma ever and I couldn’t stop sniffing it!
If you are planning on reading Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, this book should be read first. I liked this one more than “Popular”.
Here are my favorite quotes:
“Someone once told me to stand as if I wore a beautiful jewel that I wanted to show off at my bosom, and I think perhaps it is the best advice that I can pass on to you.”
“Maybe you ask, what has this all got to do with popularity? The answer is that popularity depends on your ability to get along with people, all kinds of people, and the better you learn to adjust to each situation the more easily you will make friends. You will find that you can make those adjustments more successfully if you have yourself well in hand. And the only way to get yourself in hand is to know yourself, to analyze yourself, to turn yourself inside and out as you would an old pocketbook--shake out the dust and tidy up the contents.”
July 28, 2016
I absolutely love retro books. I find them to be so fascinating. Some parts of this book were outdated (obviously) but other parts still rang true today. The best chapter is the last one on personality. I liked how she talked about the dangers of the “crowd.”
Side note: I haven’t read Popular, the memoir that was inspired by this book.
Side note: I haven’t read Popular, the memoir that was inspired by this book.
November 12, 2015
This book was bloody effing exhausting. It's only 100 some pages but it took me a flippin month to finish because I found it so tiring. ALL THESE RULES FOR WOMEN. So much anticipation of what a boy likes and doesn't like. Also people of color don't exist (I mean they didn't then, let's be frank). I honestly don't know why I torture myself by not putting down books once I start them. But I finished goddammit and I think I deserve some sort of medal.
June 5, 2014
I always read old books like this as a sort of anthropology experiment - it's fascinating to look at the snapshot of the era and compare and contrast the advice that's given with current thinking. This teen-age popularity guide stands up moderately well to a modern audience - lots of the general suggestions about how to overcome shyness, interact with boys, and follow the crowd while being your own trendsetter are still totally applicable. The interesting parts for me, though, are the parts where it becomes completely out of date, and the things that are left unsaid. Teen-aged sex is not even mentioned (okay, there is a brief comment about 'petting'). The diet suggestions are fascinating from a historical perspective but pretty useless to anyone trying to slim down on modern American food. Feminism cried some, although Cornell has lots of pleasant things to say about the freedom that women enjoy 'nowadays.' And some of the cultural norms that Cornell takes for granted, things like all the girls in your 'crowd' dating the same boys in a regular cycle, are so passé that they seem weirdly impossible to a modern eye. Also, the exercises in the appendix are hilariously pointless, but hey. I read this in preparation to read Popular (actually this one just came in from the library first), so I'm really looking forward to reading that other book and hearing about how its author actualized these suggestions in her daily life circa 2010. Should be fun!
September 26, 2016
This retro book of rules on how to become popular for teenagers is still pretty accurate. Yes, technology has changed some things but the rules are pretty much still the same in the way we should dress, behave and overall live. Great advice for pretty much all occasions. If you have a young girl, this would be nice to read and discuss together...both might learn a thing or two.
August 24, 2021
Brilliant.
May 2, 2022
I found this little gem in a thrift store. It was written in the 1950s (mid-century, as they say). It was funny in a lot of ways, like the idea that one should never leave the house in slacks or that every teenage girl needs a good girdle. Sadly, though, a lot of the demands on young women to be docile, quiet, and of course, thin, are still in place today. Interesting read.
March 4, 2019
I can't speak as to the popularity bit, but you'll certainly be more poised and healthy if you follow this advice.
September 19, 2014
This book really does have some great advice on not just teen-age popularity but on good manners that I think everyone should follow. While some of the advice is a little outdated, (when is the last time you went to a college prom out-of-town and needed to make sure you had outfits for both a picnic/tennis and the formal?), but the other advice has stood the test of time.
For example, the proper girl "adapts herself to what is new. When hair is short, so is hers, but cut to become her, not cut to look like like a recent fashion ad. Still, Jane, in trying not to look like others, does not carry the attempt too far. She strives to strike a happy medium. She keeps in fashion, but she also keeps on looking like herself. She has developed what is known as her own sense of style, for style is merely the sum total of what you wear and the wear it" (P. 121). This is still true today that style should be a happy medium of finding what looks good on you and not to just wear it because the models are wearing it or because your friends look good in it.
While this book does have serious advice there were some pretty funny moments I had to mention...
For the skinny girls trying to gain weight. "If you don't know what foods are fattening, ask your chubby friends they will know. The strange irony of the whole figure problem is that so often it is the thin girls who don't drink the double malted milks, while the chubbies just dote on them" (P. 12).
"Be sure to nibble between meals, and not on carrot sticks like your unhappier sisters, but on peanut-butter-and-jelly concoctions" (P. 12-13).
On standing tall..."Someone once told me to stand as if I wore a beautiful jewel that I wanted to show off at my bosom" (P. 36).
For example, the proper girl "adapts herself to what is new. When hair is short, so is hers, but cut to become her, not cut to look like like a recent fashion ad. Still, Jane, in trying not to look like others, does not carry the attempt too far. She strives to strike a happy medium. She keeps in fashion, but she also keeps on looking like herself. She has developed what is known as her own sense of style, for style is merely the sum total of what you wear and the wear it" (P. 121). This is still true today that style should be a happy medium of finding what looks good on you and not to just wear it because the models are wearing it or because your friends look good in it.
While this book does have serious advice there were some pretty funny moments I had to mention...
For the skinny girls trying to gain weight. "If you don't know what foods are fattening, ask your chubby friends they will know. The strange irony of the whole figure problem is that so often it is the thin girls who don't drink the double malted milks, while the chubbies just dote on them" (P. 12).
"Be sure to nibble between meals, and not on carrot sticks like your unhappier sisters, but on peanut-butter-and-jelly concoctions" (P. 12-13).
On standing tall..."Someone once told me to stand as if I wore a beautiful jewel that I wanted to show off at my bosom" (P. 36).
June 19, 2019
I love vintage clothing but I also really adore the mid century children’s books. So, how’s a book WRITTEN by a teenage fashion model from the 1950s?
This book is a “self help” book for teenagers how to get the best out of themselves. And that’s my favourite thing about this book, it doesn’t tell you how to lose weight and how to get those boys, it’s how to be the best version of YOU.
What I noticed as a teenager, was that a lot of the magazines were only telling us what to do for them boys. And I’m not up for that. Still not. But this book that’s written in the damn 1950s, tells you how to be the best of you FOR YOU. Of course, there are chapters about how to be a great date and how to be a great girlfriend, but that’s part of being a teenager too, and it isn’t just all about that.
My favourite part of this whole book is the fact that it tells you how to GAIN weight too. As a person who has been underweight all her life, this is amazing. Not everyone chooses to be stick thin, some of us can’t help it. I feel like I’m bashing our magazine culture today, which I’m honestly not!, but all I ever saw in the magazines about weight is how to lose it, not to gain it. This book also advice’s to see a doctor whether you are gaining weight or losing weight because your doctor knows what is the best way of doing things for you, and if that isn’t A+ advice for young teenagers I don’t know what is.
The book is divided in several chapters and are told in a very fun and informative way. Because the author was a teenager when she wrote it, it feels a lot more like a friend who’s telling you this.
This book is a “self help” book for teenagers how to get the best out of themselves. And that’s my favourite thing about this book, it doesn’t tell you how to lose weight and how to get those boys, it’s how to be the best version of YOU.
What I noticed as a teenager, was that a lot of the magazines were only telling us what to do for them boys. And I’m not up for that. Still not. But this book that’s written in the damn 1950s, tells you how to be the best of you FOR YOU. Of course, there are chapters about how to be a great date and how to be a great girlfriend, but that’s part of being a teenager too, and it isn’t just all about that.
My favourite part of this whole book is the fact that it tells you how to GAIN weight too. As a person who has been underweight all her life, this is amazing. Not everyone chooses to be stick thin, some of us can’t help it. I feel like I’m bashing our magazine culture today, which I’m honestly not!, but all I ever saw in the magazines about weight is how to lose it, not to gain it. This book also advice’s to see a doctor whether you are gaining weight or losing weight because your doctor knows what is the best way of doing things for you, and if that isn’t A+ advice for young teenagers I don’t know what is.
The book is divided in several chapters and are told in a very fun and informative way. Because the author was a teenager when she wrote it, it feels a lot more like a friend who’s telling you this.
June 17, 2016
I was surprised really at just how much stuff in here was sensible, a bit of the info is dated but that's pretty much just the cosmetic side of things, and even that is just that there were less options for stuff back then. This was actually pretty fun to read, as she seemed to write like a scolding but helpful older sister.
March 8, 2015
Read this ahead of reading Maya Van Wagenen's book. Curious to see how much of Betty's advice she followed.
While much of this content is outdated, some advice--especially the chapter about personality--still resonates strongly today.
While much of this content is outdated, some advice--especially the chapter about personality--still resonates strongly today.
April 17, 2014
On the heels of reading Popular, the book that was inspired by this one, I just had to check it out! Some of the advice was pretty dated (Only Marcia Brady brushes her hair that much), but other stuff was timeless. A fun read. If you liked Maya's book, you'll get a kick out of this one.
July 23, 2014
It was fascinating to read the advice given by a former model to teenage girls in the 1950s... especially knowing that this was the book that inspired Maya Van Wagenen's social experiment and book, POPULAR.
October 9, 2015
For a vintage book I was pretty surprised by the liberalism that peeked out every now and then. While fun to read as more of a quirky history lesson, some of the advice still holds up while some is irrelevant to today's teenagers.
July 24, 2015
I really enjoyed this book! It's got great, timeless advice for teenage girls, even 50 years after publication. It's vintage charm adds to the lovely feel of this book and I would definitely reccomend.
May 29, 2014
While this book was written many years ago, a large part of it is still applicable to girls today. I've encouraged my 3 to read it and pick a couple of things to apply.
August 10, 2014
Very interesting. Happy I read it before reading "Popular"
January 20, 2015
I wouldn't follow its advice now (ok, maybe just the fashion and beauty stuff), but it was an interesting read.
February 14, 2015
It was a great read providing insight into the lives of young women two generations ago.
January 22, 2015
Cool retro advice that can still be useful in today's times.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews