I’ve been writing a bit about the physical dairies themselves.  Check out these posts:

Retro Wednesday: Diaries: Part One

Throw Back Thursday: Advice

Way to bury the lead, but the most interesting, an controversial thing in this diary study, is what was written on the diary pages themselves.  The other older diaries shared important events that happened on that date:

However, the Forbes and Wallace diary creators felt they had to add even more advice to the (presumably) young women writing their daily records.

Beauty tips abounded:

Bleach your skin to get rid of freckles?!  Gross.  Freckles are beautiful.

The stomach is rebelling because it’s hungry!

Ain’t nobody got time for all of this.  Except for people who want to.  You look beautiful and so do us Alicia Keys types.

There were plenty of cleaning tips as well, how to keep drapes clean, and yes, again, how to remove stains from anything.

Nothing about loving your freckles and curves.

Nothing about how to get ahead in your field of employment.

Nothing about politics or math or science.

Nothing about traveling the world.

Nothing about skin or hair care for people of color.

I’d like to think this was a different world.