"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in May 1920 in the Saturday Evening Post. The original publication was illustrated by May Wilson Preston. The work later appeared in the September 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers.
Fitzgerald's story follows the plight of a mixed-race Native American girl named Bernice from rural Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who visits her beautiful and sophisticated white cousin Marjorie in the city. In an attempt to be popular, Bernice announces she will bob her hair, but this announcement leads to unforeseen consequences.
Decades after its publication, literary critic Orville Prescott of The New York Times hailed the work in 1951 as a landmark story "that set social standards for a generation of young Americans, that revealed secrets of popularity and gave wonderful examples of what to say at a dinner table or on the dance floor."
