The Washington herald., 1919-04-18
STRIKE YOUR OWN NOTE
By DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid
Woman Writer.
tour1xh. 1878. by the wh..ser synnct..)

(ouEy1xht. isls. by the whseier syndsc.taJ
get a great many letters from
girls asking me why they are wall
flowers They say they are Just as
good looking, Just as intelligent, just
as well dressed, Just as well placed
socially as the other girls in their set.
yet while tho other girls have beaus
a-plenty they never receive any at
tention from men No youth ever
camps under their pink-shaded lamps.
or brings them candy, or takes them
Joy riding, and when they go 70 parties
no man ever asks them to dance unless
he is soaded into doing so by his
hostess. And they want to know why
this Is thus
No one can speak with real au-
thority in attempting TO explain why
a wallfiower Is a wallnower any more
than they can tell why a peach Is a
peach Probablyit is Just because God
hath made them SO. Certainly no man
really knows what II is that attracts
him to one girl. and sends him flying
away from another.
1t isn't cleverness- It isn't ami
ability. 1t isn't talent. 1t isn't even
beauty, because we all know girls who
are pretty and bright and who can
sing and dance like professionals. and
who dress like fashion plates, whom
men avoid as II they had the plague.
and other girls who are just plain or
dinary girls, Of the common or gar
den variety. whom men flock about as
bees do about a honey pot.
AS near as I can. come to solving this
difficult problem II seems to me that
the trouble with the wallfiower girl is
that she lacks personality-that
mysterious something In a human
being that is different from every
other human being. and that arrests
our attention, and piques our curiosity
and that sets US wondering what man.
ner of man or woman he or she is,
and sets us to guessing what he or
she is going to do next
Especially Is this quality OF per-
sonality valuable in a girl. for most
young girls are just as much alike
as peas in a pod. They are little copy
cast who dress. comb their hair. talk
and think alike, and use the same
words, and are such counterparts OF
each other that you wonder their own
mothers can tell them apart.
My observation IS that the girl who
Is overlooked by men is invariably a
girl who is Just one of this mob of
youthful femininity. She represents
the monotony of girlhood. She is Just
the general average, and she passes
|unnoticed in the crowd. because there
Is nothing to distinguish her from all
the balance.
Now It is self-evident that If a girl
in a rosebud garden of girls wishes
to attract the attention OF any Romeo
who may be strolling through it, the
surest and quickest way to do 1t is to
cease to be a rose. and to be some
thing else. In a rose garden you might
not observe a superlatively perfect
rose but your eye would inevitably be
caught by a lily or a sunfiower.
Therefore the wallfiower girl who
wishes to take herself out OF the wall
flower class should devote herself to
cultivating personality, and she can do
this best when she learns how to strike
her own note-which means developing
her strongest characteristic to its
highest point of expression.
Most girls who are not admired by
men understudy the way OF some girl
who is a belle. This is a mistake.
limitations are never attractive. No