My Girls

"Drawing on four years of ethnographic fieldwork, My Girls offers an intimate and tender account of the lives of teenage girls striving to break the cycle of poverty. In these portraits of solidarity and struggle, Jasmin Sandelson shows how girls growing up in public housing rely on each other in countless ways when navigating social media, boyfriends, and hardship, including neighborhood violence. Heartfelt yet unsentimental, these stories testify to the enduring power, and limits, of friendship and love."--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City "A remarkable ethnography of friendship. My Girls is about growing up, getting by, looking for love, and finding support. It shows how an ordinary group of teenagers in a poor urban neighborhood makes connections, and how social bonds create meaning, purpose, and possibilities for a better life. This is a major contribution to sociology and a fantastic, gripping read."--Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life "My Girls offers a powerful alternative to research that frames low-income young women of color as 'lacking' in so many ways. Beautifully written, it illuminates how friendship provides recognition and sustains dignity as these girls move toward adulthood while mobilizing social media for support. This powerful analysis of challenges and responses to marginality will engage college students, social scientists, and the larger public alike."--Michèle Lamont, author of Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World