This research investigates the ways in which three African American high school girls interpret and challenge racialized and sexualized media representations of their race, class, and gender within music videos. The authors assert that these students' ability to counter stereotypes is a reflection of their cultural orientations, as well as their developmental stage of adolescence--two phenomena rarely combined in social science research on Black girls. The first observes how participants' stage of cognitive development assists them in interpreting media content. The second looks at the historical and sociocultural experiences of females of color that may help these students resist imposed racialized identities. Researcher findings indicate that different cognitive processes and cultural experiences assist these students in filtering through media stereotypes, as well as establishing and maintaining a positive identity that is relatively separate from one-dimensional media representations. (Contains 8 footnotes.)