Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Stories about individuals’ entry into activism are an important part of collective identity formation within social movements. This article, based on in-depth interviews and participant observation with teenage girl activists in five cities in North and South America, looks at narratives of the process of becoming an activist in order to understand how these narratives function for teenagers. Drawing on the conventions of coming of age narratives as well as developmental ideas of adolescence as a time of self-discovery, teenage girl activists produce narratives of the activist self that are influenced by these age-based discourses. The article identifies features of these narratives, including concerns with the subject’s outsider status, transformative peer relationships, growing social awareness, and a self-in-process. It argues that girl activists’ emphasis on themselves as ‘becoming’ rather than ‘being’ activists enables valuable political flexibility and openness but also contributes to their own invisibility and dismissal.