An illustration by Sydney Cowell in the Girl's Own Paper (1880–1954) in July 1896 captioned ‘They Had the Beauty of Youth and Health’ (632) (Fig. 3.1) shows two young women posing by a riverbank, nestled among wild flowers. The title points to the two central pillars of beauty in this period. Moreover, the possessive use of ‘had’ references the reality that beauty will inevitably be lost over time, or prematurely, if illness or recklessness destroys health. Girls were poised on the cusp of adult sexuality, marriage and motherhood, and their beauty was especially prized. Yet as the automatic possessors of youth and thereby, quite often, beauty, girls are subject to specific forms of advice about maintaining their appearance in comparison with those found in broader Victorian print culture for women. Instructions about beauty for girls were often embedded within other expectations about good behaviour, virtuous character and morality. Like the illustrated girls with roses adorning their hats, girl readers would be expected to follow pronouncements about appropriate dress and grooming while negotiating idealised visions of natural beauty. For girls this balancing act was framed as crucially important given that the actions of their youth could either ensure their beauty in the present and in the long term, or prematurely usher in a displeasing or prematurely aged appearance.

Beauty ideals for girls were intimately connected with the concept of health in late nineteenth-century print culture. The healthy girl would necessarily have a cheerful character and a pleasing appearance. In contrast, in the Girl's Own Book of Health and Beauty (1891?), Gordon Stables, a former Royal Navy surgeon who wrote the medical advice column for the popular British girls’ magazine, explains that unhealthy girls could be neither beautiful nor happy: