Summary Young people living in north-west European welfare states are challenged to develop their individual strength. This is especially difficult for girls living in vulnerable circumstances, because they face a form of marginalization. Girls work is a method of professional youth work that supports girls in their identity development, making them more capable of shaping their own lives now and as adults. This is conceptualized as agency, which consist of the properties: intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, self-reflection. This paper examines the extent to which girls work helps girls living in vulnerable circumstances to develop their individual strength. Findings The article is based on a questionnaire filled out by 393 girls who participate in 59 girls work activities in the Netherlands. This study shows that participation in girls work contributes to the development of intentionality of these girls (F(3,387) = 4.60, p = .004). Furthermore, girls who received an individual approach are better capable of reflecting on their actions than girls who only participated in group activities (F(2,388) = 3.10, p = .046). Applications The findings suggest that participation in girls work contributes to the intentionality of girls in vulnerable circumstances, which is an important step in the development of agency. But to accomplish this, girls need to learn how to act upon their personal intentions. However, the findings do not show that girls work contributes to the other properties of agency, suggesting that to support girls in shaping their own lives, youth workers need to contribute more to the other levels of agency.

Girls Work, as one of the methods used by professional youth work, focuses on helping vulnerable girls to shape their own lives (a capacity also referred to as 'agency'). In this study, it is hypothesized that the methodical principles (i.e., the guiding principles of the methodical actions of the youth worker) contribute to the empowerment process of girls, which in turn leads to the development of girls' agency. Serial mediation was used to test this hypothesis. Results indicate that all of the methodical principles, with the exception of the use of context, are important to helping girls develop agency. Four of the methodical principles contribute to both empowerment and agency, while the other methodical principles contribute to agency only through empowerment. This paper also addresses the importance of focusing on the empowerment of girls, as empowerment is positively linked with agency. All of the components of individual empowerment are important when helping girls develop their agency.

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