Dear Diary,

I have to leave soon to go to my new job. I'm very happy to have gotten a baby-sitting job at the Hagen's. These days, its so hard for a young girl to find a job, unless you are someone famous. I consider myself lucky to live in a nice house with a good family. It bothers me to think of the poor families who suffered during the Depression or the wives of soldiers who receive a telegram telling them that their husband has been killed in the war. Thinking of the war makes me scared to walk down these dark streets alone. I've never been too keen on being alone after dark; I know its childish since I'm almost seventeen but ever since the war started, I look at things differently than I did before.

A teenage couple just passed me on the other side of the street. I noticed that they were wearing matching football jackets. I often think about why girls do silly things to make boys like them. Some girls in my school would go as far as wearing boys' army boots or even those ridiculous striped wool football socks to impress boys. I would never dress in rolled up jeans or sloppy shirt tails to get someone to notice me. In our society, there is tremendous pressure placed on teenagers if they want to be a part of the more 'popular' crowd. We're expected to act and dress exactly like eachother, but I never understood why. We all just look like peas in a pod when we dress the same way and I think it looks strange. Boys are not the same. They never dress or act like eachother and they are not expected to. There was no pressure on them to look perfect.

Even though us girls act the same in public, we still get to have fun together, like at our weekly slumber party. Every Friday night, we gather at one of our houses. Its actually a tradition for many teenage girls. We all get to have fun together without the pressure of looking or acting the same. Sometimes, on Saturdays, we go to the roller rink skate and meet new people or we go to the store and listen to the newest records since most of us can't afford them. My friends and I especially enjoy listening to our idol, Frank Sinatra. I'm looking forward to buying his album when I save up enough money to buy it. I've only ever seen him in person once, and I even got his autograph.

Life is fun, but although I never talk about it, even when I'm having a lot of fun, the fact that people fought and died for our country is always on my mind. The only thing I need to make my life perfect is for this war to end so the whole world can be at peace. And I'm sure everyone I know feels the same way.