From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgirlhoodgirl‧hood /ˈɡɜːlhʊd $ ˈɡɜːrl-/ noun [uncountable] CHILDthe period of her life when a woman is a girl → boyhood
Examples from the Corpus
girlhood• She spent her girlhood in San Francisco, where her father dabbled in both journalism and the theater.• Particularly in aristocratic circles, young women hardly out of girlhood were married off as political pawns.• The entertainment reminded Alix of the end-of-term pantomime at school, a regular feature of her own girlhood. 