Teenage girls know more than we're given credit for. We sense danger even when everyone's telling us it's fine, he's a perfectly nice man, an upstanding member of our community, have you tasted his sugar-cream pie?

I could tell he wanted the best for me. Of course, he assumed that would be getting out. Everyone always thought that, not of what we had to go back to, at home. Maybe our parents had thrown away our mattresses. Maybe they'd told our siblings we'd been run over by trains, to make our absence fonder.

Not everyone had a parent. It could be that nothing was waiting for us. Our keys would no longer fit the locks. We'd resort to ringing the bell, saying we've come home, can't we come in?

The eye in the peephole would show itself, and that eye could belong to a stranger, as our family had moved halfway across the country and never informed us. Or that eye could belong to the woman who carried us for nine months, who labored for fourteen hours, who was sliced open with a C-section to give us life, and now wished she never did.

The juvenile correctional system could let us out into the world, but it could not control who would be out there, willing to claim us.

There's something ugly about a pretty boy who knows he's pretty and assumes everyone else know it too.

We talk to families and especially the teenage girls about the importance of washing their hands.

Relating to teenage girls can be a real dance so to speak. I know we're going to have difficulties when we get to that age.

I urge you to spend the time to listen to the voice inside of you. I see teenage girls as being the primary fuel of this planet.