Within the past decade, adolescents have become an increasingly scrutinized age group in the United States and abroad. The stereotypical image of youth and of adolescence by extension--as a boisterous embodiment of the "unruly" stage of life between childhood and adulthood--has long dominated discussions about definitions of and subsequent policy regarding adolescents. In addition to concerns about adolescent literacies, there has been considerable discussion and concern about the quality of schooling to which many adolescents, particularly those who are economically marginalized and identify as ethnic minorities, are exposed and how such schooling fails to prepare them for life after high school, either in the workplace or in institutions of higher education This chapter focuses on a particular subset of educational issues, the literacies of adolescents, which in the past 10 years have become the focus of critique and concern in educational research, practice, and policy. The authors provide a selective review of issues drawn from research literature and policy reports that have collectively shaped current perceptions about the literate lives of adolescents; some of this work has been appropriated by the public media, and for this reason, they address some of the resulting public perceptions. Throughout the review, they focus on the ways that risk is embedded in the identification of adolescents as low literate and the ways that the concept of adolescent literacies has garnered negative attention in some contexts.