Voicing Vulnerability

Writing is intricately connected with adolescents’ voice and agency, which can lead to transformative and empowering outcomes. In our study, we explored the intersections of writing agency, culturally diverse adolescent girls’ voices, and the notion of vulnerability as strength among adolescent girls in a culturally diverse community-based organization. Within an intersecting framework of critical theories and gender theories, we analyzed the power and tension of agency and vulnerability within girls’ writing at CORRAL, a nonprofit that pairs rescued horses with girls in high-risk situations to provide healing and transformational change. We conducted a 14-month study with observations, participant interviews, and the girls’ writing that explored their understanding of identity. Using Butler’s (2016) and Petherbridge’s (2016) conceptualizations of vulnerability, we explored how writing produced an intentional opportunity for healing. Our study demonstrates how adolescent girls’ writing of girlhood, written in the context of healing transformation, can reflect vulnerability as strength.