girlhood

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
girl/ɡɜːl/

▶noun

• 1 a female child.

• 2 a young or relatively young woman.

  ■ (girls) informal women who mix socially or belong to a group.

  ■ a person's girlfriend.

• 3 dated a female servant.

– derivatives
girlhood noun,
girlish adjective,
girlishly adverb,
girlishness noun.

– origin ME (denoting a child or young person of either sex): perh. rel. to Low Ger. gör ‘child’.