[d] Uniquely for an Amalgamated Press title, Girls' Crystal began as a story paper before transforming into a picture comic between editions, with the new format debuting on 21 March 1953.

It was a success, and was soon joined by sister title The Schoolgirl - not to mention numerous rivals launched by other publishers during the period between the wars - one author Denis Gifford would describe as "the Golden Age of story papers".

[12] The strips included cruise drama "Merle's Voyage of Mystery" (which occupied the cover, the sole colour page in the issue), "Naida of the Jungle" (featuring a character from the story paper days).

"Val - the Girl Who Helped Mr. Nemo" (loosely following the format of Noel Raymond, where a male hero was aided by a female assistant), girl-and-canine adventures with "Bruce the Circus Dog" and light-hearted one-page strip "Not-So-Simple Susie".

[13] For much of the rest of the fifties Girls' Crystal stuck to similar genres - boarding school drama, typically featuring Fourth Formers[e] such as "Loyal to the Sports Mistress" (1954), "The Fourth Form Treasure Seekers" (1957), and "Molly and the Phantom Circle" (1958); Alpine holidays with a heavy emphasis on skiing - including "Friends of the Gipsy Skater" (1953–54), "The Skating Coach's Amazing Secret" (1956-57), and "Pat's Tyrolean Pen-Friend" (1958); ballet - as in "The Mystery Ballerina" (1954), "The Schoolgirl Ballet Dancers" (1956), and "Her Strange Quest in the Ballet" (1958–59); and horses, like "Moira and the Masked Rider" (1956), "The Horse They Had to Hide" (1958) and "Dinah and Her Mystery Horse" (1959).

Typical devices involved two friends arriving at an exotic locale, discovering someone in trouble and resolving to help, or orphans trying to find an escape from cruel guardians, who were often keeping some secret from them.

By this point both it and School Friend were becoming seen as distinctly dowdy compared to DC Thomson's recently launched Bunty, and Girls' Crystal was modernised in the early 1960s to compete.

", while more adventurous girls were catered for by "Mam'selle X", which told the story of Avril Claire - an actress hated by day as she put on shows for Nazis in order to cover her secret activities as one of the French Resistance's top agents.

As was common with many Fleetway titles, the Girls Crystal Annual continued long after the weekly, with the final book in the series bearing the date of 1976.