The title of the film refers to the small yellow teddy bears worn by some of the girls at the all-girls Peterbridge New Town Grammar School on their uniform to symbolise their loss of virginity.
Their ringleader, 16-year-old Linda (Annette Whiteley) – neglected by her parents and often left alone while they go on trips abroad – uses her sexual relationship with school window cleaner and part-time singer ‘Kinky’ (Iain Gregory) to lord it over the other girls in her biology class – until she falls pregnant.
Kinky tries unsuccessfully to find some pills for Linda to take, but when that does not work she finds help with an older woman June (Jill Adams) who is in fact a prostitute. Linda decides to pay for her £50 abortion by becoming a prostitute herself.
Enter Linda’s irate father (Victor Brooks) who refuses to countenance an abortion because he wants to see her brought to heel by the humiliation of pregnancy followed by the burden of raising a “bastard”.
Linda eventually runs away to London with a lorry driver, despite being warned by an older woman in a truckers’ café, “Do you think you can lose yourself in London? Listen, baby, THEY lose you! Go home. I wish to God I had”.
The Beatles were offered cameos roles in the film but turned it down.
Released in some markets as Gutter Girls and also The Thrill Seekers.
Miss (Anne) Mason
Jacqueline Ellis
Linda Donaghue
Annette Whiteley
Kenneth ‘Kinky’ Carson
Iain Gregory
Pat Lang
Georgina Patterson
Sally Marshall
Anne Kettle
Mike Griffin
Douglas Sheldon
Marsha
Margaret Vieler
June Wilson
Jill Adams
Muriel Donaghue
Noel Dyson
George Donaghue
Victor Brooks
Frank Lang
Richard Bebb
Eileen Lang
Ann Castle
Carol
Caron Gardner
Joan
Lesley Dudley
Paul Brimmer
John Bonney
Susie
Lucette Marimar
Benny Wintle
John Glyn Jones
Kim
Valli Newby
Larry
Norman Mitchell
Cliff
Earl Green
Lady Gregg
Harriette Johns
Mrs Seymour
Ruth Kettlewell
Miss Fletch
Hilary Mason
Mrs Broome
Micheline Patton
Harry Halburton
Raymond Huntley
Gloria
Shirley Cameron
Liz
Julie Martin
Sheila
Bernadette Milnes
Paula
Paula Gordon
Director
Robert Hartford-Davis