This is the first study of the medieval and early modern girl actor, exploring the girl actor, along with girl singers, authors and translators, as a broad and coherent expression of 'girl culture'. By identifying "girl culture" as a richly multifaceted phenomenon and locating it at the heart of her study of pre-modern performance, Deanne Williams offers a transformative new perspective on both theatre history and the history of childhood. Transnational and multilingual in its scope, expansive in its chronological reach and methodologically capacious, this bold and ambitious book makes plain the remarkable and shaping role girls have played in the production of culture.