Girly handwriting is a form of
folk calligraphy practised by girls and women (but rarely by men) from about 9 (when
cursive handwriting becomes easy) to college age and sometimes beyond, chiefly for letters and other personal uses. It's marked by freely written
letterforms, exaggerated extenders and serifs, circular,
heart- or
star-shaped dots on
I and
J, alternative crossbars, and pictorial uses (like
smileys) of the letter
O. Texts are written with broad margins, in either very large or very small letters, and doodling and/or comments in these margins are common, as is the liberal use of underlines, strike-outs, asterisks,
scare quotes, and other typographical tricks.
Girly handwriting is surprisingly international, being practised in Japan as well as roman alphabet-using countries, but seems to be a phenomenon of the 20th century and later...few examples have been found before 1900. Of course, there is uncial....