In 1955, the first issues of Nakayoshi and Ribon came out. The target audience were the girls who were born in the baby-boom period, which was from 1947 to 1949 in Japan. In 1960, Hagio Moto, Yamagishi Ryouko, Ooshima Yumiko and Ikeda Riyoko were in their early teens. They belong to the generation of the first manga fans.
In 1963, the first weekly shoujo manga magazines, Weekly Shoujo Friend and Weekly Margaret came out. The price was 50yen. Many girls spent their small allowance on the magazines. Chiba Tetsuya, Watanabe Masako and Mizuno Hideko wrote in them.
Teen age girls liked Mizuno's "Sutekina Cola", which was based on the film "Sabrina".
In 1965, Nishitani Yoshiko's "Mary Lou" appeared in Weekly Margaret. It was a love story in a high-school and it was exactly what the readers, who were in their mid teens, wanted to read. Even though many male mangaka wrote shoujo manga in the early sixties, they got less and less in shoujo manga magazines after 1965.
In 1968, Weekly Seventeen came out. The oldest manga fans, who were in their late teens, subscribed to it. Mizuno Hideko's "Fire!" appeared in Weekly Seventeen in 1969. It was the first shoujo manga that had a boy as the leading character.
In 1968 and 1969, Ooshima Yumiko, Hagio Moto and Yamagishi Ryouko debuted.