The History and Collection of the Young Woman’s Journal
For forty years, the Young Woman’s Journal provided a source for spiritual growth and support to Latter-day Saint young women. Learn about the journal’s creation and its recent digitization into the Church History Catalog.
The Church History Library recently added the Young Woman’s Journal to its digitized collections. All issues are now available to users worldwide through the library’s catalog. The Young Woman’s Journal, a monthly magazine published for Latter-day Saint young women from 1889–1929, was previously digitized and made available online by Brigham Young University.
In 1883, Susa Young Gates and her family moved to the Kingdom of Hawai’i. Her husband, Jacob, had been called to serve a mission there. In the spring and summer of 1888, Susa began thinking about what she could do upon their return to Utah.1 She had developed a passion for writing at an early age, and by the age of 14, she worked as an associate editor of the College Lantern, a literary magazine at Deseret University. She continued writing while living in Hawai'i and published articles in Godey’s Lady’s Book, the Contributor, and Woman’s Exponent during those years. In June 1888, she received a letter from a close friend, Dr. Romania B. Penrose, suggesting she consider starting a magazine for the young women of the Church. Romania’s letter planted the idea, and Susa began planning the creation of what would become the Young Woman’s Journal.
In late August 1888, Susa wrote a letter to President Wilford Woodruff, who was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve and acting President of the Church after John Taylor’s death in 1887. From the beginning, Susa affiliated the Young Woman’s Journal with the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA), but it was also a personal project and business venture for her. She described her ideas for the magazine, asked for President Woodruff’s approval and the delivery of a letter to the YLMIA presidency to ask for their cooperation. President Woodruff responded and expressed his support for her project. “The subject on which you write,” he stated, “meets with our approval. We know of no reason why our Young Ladies Associations should not be properly represented, and the plan you propose, we think, is worthy of the consideration of our sisters who have been so long engaged in the interest of those Associations.” He explained that the magazine should operate as a business venture and that the income generated from subscriptions should be used to cover the publishing costs, allowing it to operate without any Church assistance. The three other Church-affiliated magazines at the time, the Contributor, Woman’s Exponent, and Juvenile Instructor, were also privately owned and operated.
The first edition of the Journal was published in October 1889, only five months after Susa and her family returned to Utah. In that issue, Gates delivered a call to all young women to subscribe to the magazine and recruit one other girl to subscribe. She admonished, “Remember, girls, this is your magazine.” She asked them to contribute essays, stories, articles, poems, and letters for possible publication.
Image: Eliza Chipman (left) and Josephine Booth, cropped from group portrait of missionaries serving in the British Mission
Many young women read and contributed to the Young Woman’s Journal. After the first year, Susa reported 800 subscriptions. She estimated yearly subscription numbers between 5,000–7,000 by 1900. Readership was probably much higher as young women passed their copies on to friends. Two contributors to the publication were Eliza Chipman and Josephine Booth, the first women called to serve as full-time missionaries for the Church. (Their mission diaries were recently published online by the Church Historian’s Press.) While serving a mission in England, Eliza wrote a letter to the young women of the Church. It was published in the November 1899 issue of the Journal under the title “Our Girls.” In it she described receiving her call, traveling to England, and some of her earliest missionary experiences. She invited other young women to serve missions by stating, “My dear sisters, I wish there were more of you out in the world making an effort to allay prejudice, speaking in just praise of the mothers and daughters of Zion, and teaching the gospel according to the plan of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.” In June 1910, the Journal published “Impressions Along the Way,” authored by Josephine. In her article she encouraged young women to avoid fashion fads and to set an example to the outside world.
The Journal became more than a literary outlet. It was a space where young women were exposed to the blessings of missionary work and it functioned as a platform to support their spiritual growth. As the Journal evolved, the content did also. The topics over the years included literary and editorial content and additional sections including:
- Our Girls
- House and Home
- Dress, Health, and Hygiene
- Our Shopping
- Current Issues
- The Sunday Chapter
- Professional and Business Opportunities for Women
- Constitutional Government
- Teachings of Our Savior
- Young Mother’s (sic)
- Fashions Sensible and Pretty
- Confidential Talks with Girls
Image: Women’s Victory Convention of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association in Chicago, February 1920
The Journal was published across decades that included perpetual political and societal changes for women and the editors responded to issues of their day. Many topics and themes discussed in the Woman’s Exponent were echoed in the Journal to the younger women of the Church. For instance, the June 1895 issue was composed almost entirely of Susa’s lengthy report of the National Council of Women meetings in Washington D.C. that she attended with other Utah women representing both the Relief Society and the YLMIA. She suggested to YLMIA leaders that the issue would provide useful readings for local young women groups. She encouraged them to have the girls take notes about the points and issues that interested them and what they agreed or disagreed with so they could have a discussion following the reading. In May 1920, Donnette Smith Kesler wrote about the Victory Convention of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association in Chicago that a group of Utah women attended. The same issue included an editorial celebrating suffrage and posing new questions to readers, concluding, “Opportunities for splendid new service are opening up for women. Success or failure will depend on how they meet the issues.”
After over a decade of working as the magazine’s editor, Susa resigned her post at the end of 1900. By that time, the YLMIA leaders and their priesthood advisors had assumed more responsibility for the magazine’s content, and it had grown to be a conduit of official Church communications and YLMIA program information, including lesson materials. Six women served as the Journal’s editor:
- Suza Young Gates, 1889-1900
- May Booth Talmage, 1900-1902
- Ann M. Cannon, 1902-1907
- Mary Connelly Kimball, 1907-1923
- Clarissa A. Beesley, 1923-1929
- Elsie Talmage Brandley, 1929
In 1929, the Young Woman’s Journal merged with the Improvement Era, which was created in 1897 as a parallel publication for the young men of the Church. The August 1929 edition of the Journal contained a script, “A Story Book Wedding,” for local YWMIA groups to present. The play featured the marriage of Prince Era and Princess Journal, announced the merging of the two publications, and asked that those in attendance purchase a charter subscription as a wedding gift. In October 1929, the Journal ’s final issue, Susa reflected on her vision in 1888. She wrote, “The real purpose in establishing the Journal was to provide an outlet for the literary gifts of the girl members of the Church while presenting the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a factor in religious, domestic, social, and recreational life through articles and stories, departments and editorials.”
In the first joint issue of the Improvement Era in November 1929, Susa wrote, “The part which I played in the founding of the Young Woman's Journal has been related in detail elsewhere and will not be repeated here. However, it may not be out of place to state that my sole motive was to strengthen the faith of our young women and increase their devotion to the work for which their parents had endured so much, and at the same time to give them an opportunity to develop later literary gifts. It is with real pride that I look back upon what has been accomplished in this respect. Through all the years of its existence, the Journal has never lost sight of its original purpose.”
Susa’s 1888 ambition for the Journal as a literary outlet for young women had been met and expanded upon throughout the 40 years of publication. Clarissa A. Beesley wrote, “Forty volumes of the Young Woman’s Journal! You stand in solemn array before me and it seems almost as if you could speak and recall with me the pleasant memories we share together. You came to me as dear companions in my childhood bringing keenest joy as I revelled [sic] in the romance of your pages.” Elsie Talmage Bradley remembered, “The first books I really learned to love (after leaving the magic land of Goldilocks and Red-riding Hood) were the volumes of the Young Woman’s Journal, bound in somber black leather, and standing in an awe-inspiring, annually lengthening row on the library shelf. At this moment, I can shut my eyes and recall the unexpected delight which overwhelmed me after the first hour I spent with volume twelve.” The women who wrote reminiscences for the last issue looked forward to the future success of the new Improvement Era.
In addition to the digitized issues, there is an index for the Journal, accessible online from the library’s catalog. The index can be used to locate topics, authors, events, and places throughout the 40-year run. For more information about the Young Woman’s Journal and the Young Women Organization (past and present), please consult the following resources:
Young Women resources (current)
Youth resources (current)