Hey! I’m doing a report on newsies for class (which I’m so excited about!) so I was wondering what was the age range for news-kids? I was thinking from 6-18, is that about right? Thank you so much!! 💜💜
Great question!
Your guess for the lower limit is about right. It would not have been unusual to encounter newsboys who were 6-7 years old, but those boys were considered young.
As for the upper limit, it varied quite a bit. Union president David Simons was one of the older strikers at 21 years old. The oldest strikers we have record of were 23. But there were plenty of fully-grown adults who sold papers who mostly didn’t join the strike, including older women who would sometimes sell with their daughters.
If you’re interested in learning more about newsboy culture, I highly recommend this article. It’s an interview with union president David Simons about the job and the culture surrounding it. It includes several photographs.
If you have any other questions, let me know!