Biography

A paperboy or papergirl is someone—often an adolescent—who distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices of subscribers on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th century, this was often a young person's first job, and was often undertaken before or after school. (This constrasts with the newsboy or newspaper hawker, now extremely rare in Western nations, who would sell newspapers to passersby on the street, often with very vocal promotion. They were common when multiple daily papers in every city—as many as 50 in New York City alone—competed for sales.)