Last week, I apprehend that a Texas jailbait fabricated $300,000 the ancient way: Maya Van Wagenen wrote a account about her adventures afterward the admonition from “Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide” — an amenities book appear in 1958 — and again got a cine deal.
Cornell’s book capacity all the essentials a babe needs to apperceive to be accepted in the 1950s — from diet to accouterment to actuality a able hostess.
I was intrigued. Would a adviser to acceptable a accepted jailbait in mid-century America still be accordant to addition like myself — a 14-year-old aerial academy apprentice active on the Upper East Side in 2013? I had to acquisition out.
However, the aboriginal claiming was award an absolute archetype of the book, which hasn’t been in book for decades. I assuredly tracked one bottomward at the New York Public Library. In the anachronous book, Betty fabricated this promise:
“I don’t affliction who she may be, every babe wants to be adorable and popular. To get to be that affectionate of girl, all you accept to do is try some of my suggestions.”
With that in mind, I proceeded to absorb a anniversary in the squeaky-clean shoes of Betty Cornell’s ideal teenager. Here, I allotment my experience:
Normally I ablution my beard every added day, but Betty recommends abrasion it at atomic already a week, so I gave myself a two-day breach in amid shampoos. She additionally says to besom your locks 100 times afore bed and set your beard with rag curlers at atomic already a week. “Beautiful beard is about the best important affair a babe has,” she writes. I attempted the rag curlers, but allegedly I didn’t do it appropriately because I woke up with them broadcast all about my pillow. I was religious with the 100 strokes, alike if it meant blockage up an added bristles to 10 account every night. I did apprehension a change in my beard about center through the anniversary — it became appreciably glossier. It has never looked better, so I ability abide this.
As a active teenager, I aloof abrade aback I bethink to, which is appealing sad. Betty warns, “The two big troublemakers in bark altitude are diet and dirt. Too abundant amber and too little soap and baptize are the basal irritants.” Aback I don’t eat too abundant clutter food, I ample I’d accept to apply on the washing. The book suggests massaging a acceptable bulk of cleansing chrism into the skin, absolution it sit for at atomic two account and again abrasion it with soap and water.
This was conceivably the best arduous allotment of my new lifestyle. I would deathwatch up every morning 10 account beforehand than accepted aloof to backpack out the assigned steps. First, I had to bathe my face beneath hot water, to accessible up the pores. Again I had to thoroughly abrade my face with soap (I acclimated a approved face wash) for a few minutes, authoritative abiding to beating my face to accumulate apportionment moving. Finally, I had to ablution the soap off with algid baptize to abutting up the pores. The book alike recommended application ice cubes to get the soap off. I did not try this.
I did get added common ‘hurry up’ banging on the bath aperture than accepted from my parents. Admitting none of my accompany noticed my new glow, my bark did feel a lot bigger afterwards this absolute abrade alert a day, although I absolutely did not use a cleansing chrism afore the ritual, as recommended — I couldn’t acquisition it anywhere.
Most days, I abrasion jeans, a sweater and Uggs. However, the book suggests article added able — the illustrations appearance a fuller brim with adapted sweater, so I relied on below-the-knee skirts, Peter Pan collars, sweaters and dresses — mostly in Betty’s appropriate neutrals of fleet blue, gray or green. She additionally instructs adolescence to abrasion saddle shoes to school, but my estimation — Oxfords and abbreviate heels in amber and atramentous — were a little aberrant for a avant-garde boyish babe to wear. All of my apparel were absolute with a fiber of chaplet because Betty says, “Fads appear and go, but a simple cord of baby chaplet is still a adolescent girl’s best friend.”
At aboriginal I got lots of aberrant looks from my friends. Center through history class, addition asked me why I was dressed like a history teacher. There were a few whispers and some laughing, but I didn’t mind. The Oxfords were annealed and gave me blisters, so I had to canal them in favor of ballet flats. Still, I acquainted absolutely feminine aback my accepted jeans and sweaters aren’t actual gender specific.
Playing dress-up was both the best difficult and best fun allotment of my experiment. Admitting I couldn’t advice but admiration how anyone could become accepted by acid Peter Pan collars and continued skirts to school. Alike admitting I acquainted actual elegant, I did absence my jeans. A lot.
I am a swimmer, so accepting exercise is never an issue. I like to be fit and bass so that I feel healthy, but Betty suggests it’s added about attractive like a model. “What we’re all appetite for is a well-developed, ample figure, beeline shoulders, baby waist and hips, well-shaped legs and attenuate ankles, so you too can angle up — smile and be proud,” she says.
The book showed an arrangement of exercises, which seemed agnate to Pilates and acceptable ancient stretching. The archetypal demonstrating it in the book is acid an Audrey Hepburn-style atramentous accouterments with a neckerchief. The moves consisted of extending and alternatively appropriation your legs off the attic to accent them, agitation aback and alternating on your achievement and ambit your ankles to abbreviate them.
The contest were adequately ridiculous. My fourth-grade gym chic was added demanding than these. I bathe consistently and exercise on top of that. But if I had to await on aloof these movements, I’d accept to cut aback on my snacking alike more. And who wears a neckerchief to assignment out!?
Junk aliment has never been an affair for me. Usually I eat yogurt for breakfast, bloom for cafeteria and craven for dinner, with lots of bake-apple in between. I do eat a lot, but my aliment choices, like bags of fruit, would get the thumbs up from the aboriginal lady. I am not so abiding about Betty Cornell. She suggests no snacking in amid meals. Cornell recommends never absence breakfast and abnegating bloom dressings and chicken, avocado and adolescent angle on your salads (too oily). Sample commons abide of proteins like ground-beef patties or angular buzz beef with appearance and broiled apricots. Commons were taken with amazon abstract and milk.
Per Betty’s suggestion, I ate soft-boiled egg for breakfast, a bloom for cafeteria and a ground-beef patty for dinner. The book absolutely focused on acid out candy such as cookies, peanut adulate and clabber sandwiches and ice cream, which is a actual acceptable idea.
I had a actual adamantine time actual from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a soft-boiled egg and a allotment of acknowledgment — “watch that butter!” warns Betty. I was famished. I acquainted abounding in the evening, though, and I absolutely enjoyed my soft-boiled eggs. But I absent granola. And the ground-beef patties were apparently the affliction of my existence. Also, a bottle of milk with meat is aloof inhumane.
The book devotes a lot of amplitude to the art of autograph a letter. According to Betty, ”Letters are still, in animosity of telegraphs and telephones, one of the best affable things in life.” But like best modern-day boyish girls, I usually accelerate e-mails to anybody I charge to get in blow with. In fact, I don’t bethink the aftermost time I wrote a letter that wasn’t a accepted “thank-you” note. I couldn’t abandon texting and e-mailing altogether, but I approved my duke at a few belletrist to accompany and my aunt in Vermont.
Writing a letter about acquainted absolutely new to me. My autography isn’t the best, so I had to assignment on it a lot with an old ballpoint pen that was in the house. Alike admitting I did not address a lot of letters, the action itself was bizarre and elegant. I absolutely enjoyed accepting out my anchored that I bought at Barnes and Noble and some cutesy cards I accept from Hallmark, and sitting bottomward at my board with my laptop closed.
Although I wondered how this affairs could possibly accomplish anyone added popular, I did feel a lot added elegant, composed and activated by the end of the week. It was a lot of fun to footfall into the shoes of a 1950s jailbait — but for me, the agreement had a shelf life. If I knew there was a six-figure book accord abaft a year’s account of this able behavior, I’d be Betty Cornell’s best adherent pupil. But aback this abstraction is already taken, I anticipate I’ll accept some of the beard and bark tips and canyon on the circadian ground-beef patties, accurate primping and annealed saddle shoes.”
