THE WORLD FOR THE YOUNG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18896, 19 December 1924, Page 14

THE WORLD FOR THE YOUNG

One notices this year that girTs are coming out much earlier than they used to do, says a writer in an Exchange. Eighteen, even 19, used to be considered tho fit and proper age for a young woman to make her entry into society. Now the age seems to be 17, in some cases even earlier than that. The attitude of mothers to daughters and of daughters to mothers is so completely altered that, perhaps, here we have the explanation. Your modern mother likes her girls to have a good time. Sim makes friends of her girls, with the roMilt that, even while they are children they go about with her a good deal. Ones a girl has her hair up there is no reason--so many mothers and girls argue—that she should remain a half-fish, half-fowl sor>, of person, belonging properly neither to the schoolroom nor the drawing room, until she is 18 or 19.

Most girls, too, go out a great deal to " young people's " dances long_ before tli'cir " official " entrance into society, so the modern mother says: "Why not throw open the doors and let the girls have a good time while they are young and have nil the zest of youth to enjoy, the good things that may come their way ? " And the partial extinction of the chaperon lias certainly made the girl of 17 to-day a much more independent and self-reliant person than her own mother at the same age.