From the 1950s: How to laugh, just for girls (because what teen didn’t need someone else telling her how to behave?)

1950s, Vintage beauty & fashion, Vintage magazines

Note: This article may feature affiliate links to Amazon.com or other companies. Qualifying purchases made via these links may earn us a small commission at no additional cost to you. Find out more here.

From the name of this regular feature (“How to be a girl”) to the information contained within (“strict attention should be paid to how you laugh and when”), we’re really not sure how much more patronizing this article could have been. It’s almost enough to make us laugh.

The talented actress showing the range of emotions was Lugene Sanders, who played the teen daughter Barbara “Babs” Riley in TV’s “Life of Riley,” which ran on NBC from 1953-1958.

How to laugh: Laughing girl (1955)

How to Be a Girl, by Susan Bennett Holmes

Laughter is a serious thing. Hoot if you must, but strict attention should be paid to how you laugh and when. It is the barometer of your emotional state.

Precisely put, laughter is a form of behavior. It is the behavior which expresses the emotion of mirth. There is nothing like laughing for the digestion, it says in the book at our right hand.

A laughing girl can put away gallons of lovely glop, with no trouble, apparently. A laughing girl is a gay girl. She has a sense of humor about herself, a merry attitude toward life, which carries her up and over many of its difficulties. The thing to be is a laughing girl!

Unfortunately, the name of laughter is given to much that is far from mirth. A lot of our so-called laughter expresses nervous, unpleasant feelings…