I think the change in some Middle School girls the need to belong to a group is much stronger than others, these are the ones that become the bullies and beasties. Everyone wants friends, but needing to label people as band or orchestra geeks, math geeks, nerds, come from those insecure in their place in the world. Yes, this is looking back at my own experiences a loooong time ago. I was one of the bullied. No other reason other than I was an introvert and I liked what I did, playing in band and reading. My 'best friend' from elementary school turned an entire group of people on me that sent me into amazing panic/anxiety attacks. It wasn't what I wore (I pretty much wore what everyone else wore although my parents did not buy a lot of name brand clothes - I usually got some for my birthday or Christmas, but I was no worse than the average girl at school. I just was not one who would stand up to a group of people and thus became a victim. Yes, I thought after I was being picked on I was uglier than everyone else, my clothes were worse, I was stupid - I bought into what they were saying. Until I entered 9th grade (I went to a 7th-9th grade school) and I also moved in October of my 9th grade year. I hated the move, but in the end it was probably the best, getting me away from an abusive band director (he also picked on me for no reason, trying to make me believe I had do talent - he only liked kids whose parents would smooze him) and because I ended up in a far different group of classes than those who started bullying me, most of that stopped, but the damage was there. However, I started making new friends. I hated leaving those friends behind.
In High School I discovered that the cliques did not end, but I was fine with that, I was beginning to know who I was and yes some of those thoughts still lingered. I blossomed in my new band, was also played in orchestra and in a IUSB (college) Ensemble - so phooey on the band director that thought I had no talent. I made friends and in all hated high school.
I was happy to get away from the enforced circle of cliques and go to college where you could finally hang out with people you liked and were like you.
Junior High in the Great Depression would be about those who have and don't have, the basic language of girls hasn't changed over the decades. Queen Bees and wanna be's have probably always existed. There will be those that there parents still have jobs and though they may not have much, they do have something, there are those that the depression may not have affected much at all, and then those that the depression has left them without much at all.
When I look at my parents during this time I see a fairly big difference. My mother lived with her parents, both of whom worked form the time she was in Jr. High/High School. Here father was a meat cutter (never say butcher) and her mother worked at Miles Laboratory (This may have been closer to the late 30s). They had a camera and most of their life is well documented by photographs and even studio photographs.
On the other hand, there is my father who was left with his grandparents at the age of two. Living on a Retired postal clerk pension (my great-grandfather was one of those who used to sort the mail on a railroad car and wore a Colt 45 at his hip in the event that anyone attempted to rob the postal car). He grew up with virtually nothing. School pictures will show that he has holes in his socks or sweater (ah, he was a boy) and there are virtually no photographs unless someone else has given them to him. His grandparents had very little, He slept on a cot in the dining room, his clothes were kept in the bottom drawer in a desk. However he did have some great games that he received along with books that he has at home. I am not sure where they kept them. He did not go hungry, his grandmother used to make him eat a big (cereal like) bowl of vegetables at dinner every day. He still eats his vegetables in a separate albeit smaller bowl to this day.
So I think you would still have the same problems that girls have today, with the problems of the depression thrown in. Remade dresses, homemade dresses v.s store bought dresses. Shoes that are well worn v.s. shoes that are brand new. The latest fashion - the remade dresses. Just a different era, a much poorer era with the same mind set. Hormones raging, introverts - extroverts, what's in the lunch pail (I know my dad walked home for lunch, but I am not sure about my mom - HA, I used to walk home every day for lunch and walk back - a mile each way, same school as my father - no cafeteria - my four mile a day walk - tee hee).
My parents are still living. My dad won't remember much, but my mom will remember specific things - eh sometimes. More personal details.