The aim of this essay is to examine how boys and girls between 9–14 years old are portrayed in pen pal ads from the latter part of the 20th century. The source material consists of pen pal ads published in the newspaper Expressen during the years 1976–1977 and 1986–1987. With a qualitative content analysisas selected method, and an intersectional perspective with focus on gender and age, the content of the pen pal ads has been studied and analysed.

The result shows that themes like sports, music, idols, and animals are a part of the descriptions in almost all the ads. Based on the content of the ads, the themes and other descriptions, different ideals have emerged for boys and girls. The ideals shift between the different periods. For example, the boys’descriptions during 1976–1977 shows that sports are an interest that belongs to an ideal for boys. Not only do they mention sports more often than girls, they also, to some degree, mention different sports than girls. During 1986–1987 the result shows that the girls have increased their interest in sports, and the boys have developed a greater interest for music and idols. The girls also start to mention sportactivities that previously almost only were mentioned by boys. During both periods there are both girls and boys who go against the ideals of their own sex and mentions interests that belong to the ideal of the opposite sex. Age may have had an impact on who within the different sexes that breaks the ideal. There are also some areas within the different themes that are of more interest to a boy or a girl of a certain age. However, gender is the strongest factor, which create the biggest differences between how boys and girls are portrayed in their pen pal ads.