Despite coming from a family of British debutantes, Kristen Richardson chose not to debut, but her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom. Drawing from diaries, letters, and interviews conducted at contemporary balls, Richardson traces the social seasons of young women in Georgian England, colonial Philadelphia, the Antebellum South, and Edith Wharton's New York. While exploring why the debutante tradition persists and why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nations, Richardson has uncovered its deeply ingrained cultural influence on the lives of young women on both sides of the Atlantic.