A new exhibit at the Minnesota History Center emphasizes the influence, power of girls

When Kathleen Franz works on an exhibit with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, she likes to keep some professional distance from herself and the topic. 

But Franz, a museum curator, experienced a first in her career: a topic that was too close to home. It was impossible to not feel emotional about it. The topic? Girlhood.

“Girlhood (It’s Complicated)” opened in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, but it’s not your typical women’s history exhibit. It looks at how girls have changed history in five areas: news and politics, education, work, wellness and fashion.

The exhibit is set up to look like a zine, an item that many girls have used to share their thoughts.

The exhibit debuted at the Smithsonian in 2020. After being there for three years the traveling exhibit hit the road and is at its final stop — the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

Franz said while working on the exhibit it became clear that for it to work, it had to be personal. 

“There was a lot of laughter and tears and at some point, this really was the personal that was political and we just needed to live it,” she said. “I think that made it a better show because we really poured so much of ourselves in it.”

It emphasizes who is often not allotted a girlhood, conversations about what girlhood can look like and together, how girls have changed the world, even if they didn’t know it quite yet.

The collection features items like a dress Minnijean Brown-Trickey wore to school, the scarf Naomi Wadler wore at the March for our Lives protest in Washington D.C. in 2018 and a mermaid tail from Jazz Jennings.

There are clothing (those that violated dress codes and others that are culturally important to girls), menstrual products and advertisements through the years, contraceptive history and more.

Franz brought in an expert on LGBTQ+ issues to help the curation focus on being inclusive of the experience of all girlhoods, including that of transgender and nonbinary people.

Minnesota is the fourth museum to host the exhibit. MNHS museum manager Annie Johnson said when she saw the Smithsonian was offering the exhibit as traveling, she knew she had to find a way to bring it to the state. 

“I think girlhood is universal, it’s such an interesting lens on looking at history,” she said. “That stereotypical girlhood does not happen for everyone, a lot of people don’t get to have that kind of period growing up, they become adults so early. I think a lot of women now are examining what it means to be a woman and are pushing back against a lot of those expectations that really start being put on them when they are young women and girls.”

MNHS added a sixth area to the exhibit — girls basketball in Minnesota. Johnson said with the current state of women’s sports nationwide and in Minnesota, it was an obvious choice. Lifesize photos of Linda Roberts, Lindsay Whalen, Paige Bueckers and more paint the walls with advice to girls when they enter the exhibit: “Any girl will tell you that the right way to be an athlete is to be yourself.”

There’s a section on women’s wheelchair basketball and a group of Minnesota high school girls who designed a uniform that helped stop their hijabs from slipping off.

Johnson said MNHS expects nearly 40,000 students will see the exhibit while on field trips through the school year. She hopes that young girls can be validated by the display and see that their voices are important and other students gain a bit more empathy and respect for girlhood.

“I think girls’ experiences are not taken seriously,” she said. “Think about the media they consume, the music they listen to, the books they read, the movies they like — they often are made fun of and to have the chance to look at this through a really scholarly lens, to show the validity of these experience and importance of this time of lives, I just think it’s really powerful.”

Carol Kilbane, 77, and Shelley Donelson, 71, visited on one of the first days the exhibition was open. They have been friends for over 30 years and said they decided to visit because the issue of girlhood feels more political than ever. 

“I wish I could bring my granddaughters to see this,” Kilbane said. “It’s very timely right now, considering women are on the line and losing many gains we have made along the way.”

The exhibit runs until June 1, 2025. 

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