Although we had no tv advertising until I was in my teens we had our own version of pester power
But everybody else has one/ is being allowed to go to .. we would wail or shout at our mother
Most, like mine, had a robust response to this: Oh - & if everybody else jumped in the river I suppose you would jump in after them?
It is impossible to say whether we were more or less anxious to conform than are children today – I suspect teenagers are the same in any age
I do remember one girl with an unconventional mother who stood out in her dress, beliefs & kinds of things she did. I do not think she was bullied or ostracized ( her view may well be different)
Our attitude was partly slight pity – Oh, she cannot come, her mother will not let her (glad of our mothers conformity)– to admiration for such doughty independence, tinged with a tiny bit of fear that someone could be so unintimidated by what other people thought
