The decades around the turn of the twentieth century mark a critical transitional moment in the history of European girlhood. These decades witnessed a significant expansion in educational opportunities for girls and young women, while a broad range of new jobs provided previously unknown options in the labour market. Based on 1,100 unpublished memoirswritten by Danish women, this article explores how these changes affected the lives and experiences of three successive generations of women who came of age from the 1880s to the 1930s.