Arm in Arm with Adolescent Girls

Adolescent girls are filled with passion, excitement, joy, critique, wit, and energy, even as they face and overcome a wide variety of difficult challenges. Some challenges are spirit- and even life-threatening. The stories of more than twenty adolescent girls are put into dialogue with the Apostle Paul, especially in Rom 6-8. Through that perhaps unlikely pairing, those who love and work with adolescent girls will find a depth of understanding and a call to action. Christian educators, pastors, youth workers, parents, and adolescent girls will find a new way to look at the world around them and a new way to bring Scripture to bear on real-life experience. By offering this powerful, scripturally-grounded approach to the world around us, adolescent girls and others will learn compelling methods for putting a new perspective into action in their personal lives, social circles, and churches. This thoughtful and respectful look at the lives of adolescent girls seeks to equip faithful Christians in the church to use their prophetic voices to call out the sins of racism, sexism, homophobia, and sizeism in the experiences of these strong and resilient girls.

Emily Peck-McClain is Visiting Professor of Christian Formation and Young Adult Ministries at Wesley Theological Seminary. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and Duke Divinity School, she is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and member of the New York Annual Conference.