Within texts about girls and women, Tolentino writes, childhood is presented as "spring-loaded with pleasure and thrills" (95). Meanwhile, teens then have a more ambiguous experience, while adulthood is presented as dark (the exception to this, the marriage plot, is almost never used anymore). Tolentino differentiates these fictional depictions of life stages from her real life, where she enjoys adulthood and doesn't want to return to childhood. However, she cannot find models in fiction for this. Tolentino recalls a time when her friend Allison wouldn't let her (as an Asian-American girl) play the Pink Rower Ranger, noting that it was the first time that she identified a difference between her friends and herself. Afterwards, Tolentino recalls feeling different in terms of identification with literary heroines, who are defined by their innocence and bravery.

In part, Tolentino writes, the appeal of children's literature lies in their language, which is both efficient and indulgent. She gives examples of this from Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941) and Anne of Green Gables (1908) in terms of their depictions of objects and environments. She then gives an example from E. L. Konigsberg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967), in which the heroine doesn't get scared during an adventure.