Jean Harlow’s Diary & The Hollywood School For Girls

Courtesy of Dave & Diane Reidy

Taken at Hollywood Heritage Museum

1924

Dear Diary,

I never liked my real name —Harleen. It felt so…ordinary. It felt so far from the one of a kind spark my mother always told me I had. ‘Baby’ my mother would say which then transformed into my nickname. However, it was mothers voice that was my soothing lullaby.

At the Hollywood School for Girls, however, I was just…Harlean, I was just another girl trying to fit in.

The other girls were like porcelain dolls, their lives planned. They had pristine futures ahead of them filled with debutantes and matrimony. I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking of a different path.

The one less travelled.

This one name danced around in my head like a song filled with possibility, Jean Harlow. I’d sneak away from class during lunch, pulling my hair back into tight roles, practising my smile, in the reflection of the glass doors.

One morning, a teacher caught me in the mirror, and instead of scolding me for day dreaming, she said softly: You’ll be a star one day, Harlean.

I smiled, but inside, I already knew that I would become, Jean Harlow and Harlean would be erased.

Note: this piece is a work of fiction written by Elyssia Koulouris inspired by Jean Harlow’s time at The Hollywood School For Girls.

Taken at The Hollywood School For Girls