Which F. Scott Fitzgerald short story features a girl named Bernice?

The F. Scott Fitzgerald short story featuring a girl named Bernice is “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.” The story follows Bernice, a socially awkward young woman whose cousin Marjorie teaches her how to attract attention at parties.

Fitzgerald first published the story in The Saturday Evening Post on May 1, 1920. It became his first short story to receive major national attention, helping establish him as a writer closely associated with the emerging flapper culture and the Jazz Age.

The plot centers on Bernice’s promise to bob her hair, a fashionable but controversial haircut at the time. Marjorie manipulates Bernice into keeping that promise, then Bernice retaliates dramatically before leaving town. The story mixes comedy and social satire with darker ideas about popularity, cruelty, race, and performance.

Fitzgerald based part of the story on advice he had written to his younger sister Annabel about becoming socially popular. The story later appeared in his 1920 collection Flappers and Philosophers. It is distinct from “Winter Dreams,” “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which feature different characters and plots.