Chance and Choice: Self Creation in the Social Lives of Adolescent Girls

The adolescent social hierarchy, a parallel universe, is created, confirmed and advanced within a very few years. Chance, in the form of appearance and speed of maturation, is important here, but personal construction of reality—choice—can also be powerful. The paper looks at the dilemmas facing adolescent girls as they confront the disparate requirements of social popularity and individual achievement, with a view to understanding creation of self as model, process and attempt at conflict resolution. A simple schema for the conceptualization of self creation is proposed