Eleanor looked different when she returned to New York after Allenswood. She walked and talked with confidence. She looked attractive in her smart, new clothes. The long dresses suited her. But no matter how confident Eleanor looked or felt, there was one fear that terrorized her. Eleanor was turning eighteen and would have to “come out.”
Coming out meant that girls were presented to society. Eleanor’s family was part of New York society. Her mother and aunts had all been debutantes. Debutantes were girls from rich families.
When these girls turned eighteen, they had a “coming out” party. The parties were very formal. The girls wore ball gowns. The men wore jackets with tails. The purpose of the parties was for the girls to meet their future husbands. Eleanor’s mother, Anna Hall, had been considered one of the most beautiful debutantes of the late 1800s. Her dance card was always filled. She had many admirers. Eleanor knew she could never live up to her mother’s debut in society.
The idea of dances, parties, and balls filled Eleanor with terror. Her Uncle Teddy was now president of the United States. His own daughter, Eleanor’s beautiful cousin Alice, was also entering society. Eleanor truly felt like the ugly duckling now. She thought no one would ask her to dance. And everyone would notice her blank dance card. Her brother Hall was away at school. Eleanor wrote him every day, but did not tell him of her fears.
Then one day Eleanor was on a train. She was going from New York City to the country. A handsome young man sat down opposite her. He smiled and began to chat. Eleanor shyly smiled back. The man was a distant cousin named Franklin Roosevelt. Eleanor listened as he told her about Harvard. The last time they had spent this much time together was when she was about two years old. Then, Franklin had given her a horseback ride.
Over the next months, Eleanor found herself spending more and more time with Franklin. And though never as pretty or as witty as her mother or aunts, Eleanor did have dancing partners at the balls. But, by the time the social season was over in December, Eleanor and Franklin were a couple.
Far more important to Eleanor than the parties was her work. She remembered helping her father serve Thanksgiving dinner long ago. Now she and her friends worked at the settlement houses in lower New York City.
Eleanor taught exercise and dancing to children. While her friends arrived in their carriages, Eleanor took public transportation. People told her it was not safe to do this, but she did it anyway. Eleanor wrote to Franklin, who was still at Harvard, that she found her hours teaching the children the “nicest part of the day.”
Eleanor also began working to help make factories safer and better for the women and children who worked in them. At this time, factories were called “sweatshops.” Women and children worked up to fourteen hours each day. They worked under dangerous conditions. Often, they were locked in the factories and were not let out until it was time to quit.
Eleanor was horrified. She wanted women and children to have a better life. So she talked to politicians and wrote about what she saw. She made sure other people—people with power—were aware of the horrible working conditions. She urged leaders to pass laws to make factories safer and to shorten the workday. Eleanor was only nineteen years old. But she was beginning to look at the world and see how she could make it better.
Each night, she wrote to Franklin of her life in New York City. She wrote about her dreams of making the world a better place. He waited eagerly at Harvard for her letters. But their romance was a secret. Franklin’s mother did not want him to be serious about any young lady.
Then on November 22, 1903, Franklin proposed! Franklin’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, said they were too young. They were not ready to marry. So Franklin and Eleanor agreed to wait a year. They also promised not to tell anyone about their engagement. The year passed. Finally, the happy couple announced that they were going to be married!
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