She made a score of one-reelers, playing "'Susie,' an irrepressibly enthusiastic, impulsive young woman who gets into humorous scrapes.Larger parts would come, but a certain personality remained:

Directors often cast Joy in the "strong-willed independent woman" role, and the liberated atmosphere of the Jazz Age Roaring Twenties solidified her public popularity, especially with female film goers. Her close-cropped hair and somewhat boyish persona (she was often cast as a woman mistaken for a young man) became fashionable during the era.

Alas:

Joy's career began to falter with the advent of talkies, possibly because her heavy southern accent was considered unfashionable in comparison with other actresses' refined "mid-Atlantic" diction.