Incarcerated adolescent girls can benefit from an English classroom where personal identities, roles, and relationships can be challenged, resisted, and confronted. Education in English can be a transformative experience allowing adolescent girls to reshape and rethink not only their literacy identities but also their lives. An analysis of the everyday reading and writing experiences of incarcerated adolescent girls is the first step in envisioning a curriculum capable of transforming girls' lives. In this article the author examines the instruction that Danielle, a pregnant 17-year-old, received in the English classroom while incarcerated. She then describes her personal reading and writing practices and explores the tension between her school practices and her literary life outside the classroom. Examining Danielle's literacy practices outside the classroom and hearing her voice her opinions about her literacy practices are vital because it completes the picture of who she is as a reader and writer. Recognizing all facets of adolescent girls as readers and writers can allow English educators to create effective instruction in the difficult incarceration setting. Finally, the author examines how these findings may offer directions and possibilities for English educators in guiding their work with adolescent girls who lead difficult lives.