In October 1973, the Eli Lilly Endowment approved a grant to the University of Minnesota's Center for Youth Development and Research to undertake a study on the "needs, concerns, and aspirations" of adolescent girls. Although the Lilly Endowment had previously financed studies of male youth organizations, Project Girl proved their first venture into determining the conditions of female youth groups. Moreover, instead of focusing exclusively on organizationally "affiliated" girls, Project Girl actively sought a diverse sampling: affiliated girls, non-affiliated girls, and adjudicated delinquent girls. The research project was led by Dr. Gisela Konopka of the University of Minnesota, who had earlier authored a respected study on delinquent girls ( The Adolescent Girl in Conflict . Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1966.)
The project used a number of different research techniques. The majority of the information was acquired through open-ended individual interviews with adolescent girls. During these interviews, the girls were also asked to donate any personal poetic or fictional writings. These writings were compared to other fictional literature written for adolescent girls. Besides individual interviews, there were group sessions and reviews of professional writings. At the midway point of the study in September, 1974, a conference was held in Minneapolis to discuss the preliminary findings with the research assistants who conducted the individual interviews. At the conference, seven youth organizations (Camp Fire Girls, Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts, 4-H, American Red Cross, YWCA, and Big Sisters) participated in reviewing the preliminary conclusions.
Ultimately, nearly one thousand adolescent girls in the United States and Puerto Rico were interviewed. The girls ranged from 12 to 18 years of age and represented a variety of ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic groups. All the interviews were conducted in Alaska, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, and Texas. Through the interviews, the girls expressed opinions on: education; careers; marriage; children; the women's movement; drugs and alcohol; sexuality; social and political concerns; relationships with adults, family, and friends; and experiences with youth organizations. The responses to each of the topics were recorded on individual "McBee" data cards. Besides the actual transcripts of the interviews, the Project Girl records also contain the complete set of topical McBee Cards. In effect, the cards served as a cross-reference to the individual transcripts.
At the completion of the project, a "National Adolescent Girl Conference" was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in September of 1975. This conference sought to draw conclusions from the data and offer tangible recommendations for improving the services of youth organizations. Konopka, as director of the conference, presented her conclusions. Eventually, her remarks formed the basis for the book Young Girls: A Portrait of Adolescence (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976). Meanwhile, the staff of Project Girl contined to correspond with various youth organizations on implementation of the conference's proposals. Later, the Center of Youth Development and Research at the University of Minnesota used the conclusions of Project Girl as a basis for developing a national youth worker training program, which is documented in the National Youthworker Education Project records .
From the guide to the Project Girl records, 1972-1976, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Social Welfare History Archives [swha])
