Growing Up Female

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Among the first films to emerge from the women's liberation movement, Growing Up Female is a documentary portrait of America on the brink of profound change in its attitudes toward women.

Filmed in spring 1970 by Ohio college students Julia Reichert and Jim Klein, Growing Up Female focuses on six girls and women aged 4 to 34 and the home, school, work and advertising environments that have impacted their identities. Through open-ended interviews and lyrical documentation of their surroundings, the film strived, in Reichert's words, to "give women a new lens through which to see their own lives."

Widely distributed to libraries, universities, churches and youth groups, the film launched a cooperative of female filmmakers that bypassed traditional distribution mechanisms to get its message communicated.

Growing Up Female was added to the National Film Registry in 2011.

Tropes used in Growing Up Female include: