Primary and secondary health interventions for adolescent girls target pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, and also stress the risks and negative outcomes of girls' behaviors. Programs frequently neglect gender-specific issues, such as physical and social power imbalances, and overlook girls' strengths. Such omissions miss important opportunities for empowerment and development and ultimately shortchange girls. This article provides a feminist perspective on girls' development and suggests concrete ways for nurses in community programs to work with girls on gender-specific developmental tasks such as strengthening relationships with women and other girls, becoming comfortable with their bodies, and developing the ability to recognize and communicate their opinions.

Theories about women's health have not traditionally been extended to include the healthy development of young women. This article applies a women's health perspective to the implementation and evaluation processes of a gender-specific primary prevention program that worked with 9- to 14-year-old Hispanic girls in a low-income community. Although community-based after-school programs can be an important venue for education and girls' development, long-term effects are elusive to evaluate. The authors used ethnographic techniques to learn more about girls and their interactions with the program and to assess short-term program impact. Three themes were found: Program environment can contribute to girls' expression and behavior, issues of struggling families can slide girls into early adulthood, and mentoring can benefit both girls and adult women. Community-based primary prevention programs, although an essential part of a social safety net available to low-income girls, provide researchers with a unique set of evaluation challenges.