The hardest part of adolescence is never knowing which direction to take. Teenagers wonder who their real friends are and what a real friend is. More importantly, they question who they are. They are surrounded by many stereotypes and have difficulty meeting the expectations of their peers in middle or high school. Some will do whatever it takes to fit in with the crowd and the community. Particularly focusing on young women, some may admire the image of the ideal woman, who would be a perfect body, intelligence, and wifely personality. Then there are these young girls who want to break away from what society expects of them by creating for themselves what they want to be. These are just some of the questions raised in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. In Speak, Melinda's adolescent experience is shaped by the struggles to maintain the traditional female role, represented by the majority of female characters in the novel, while the protagonist also attempts to challenge society's gender norms. One of the struggles Melinda faces that shapes the way she experiences adolescence is through the people she meets in high school who reflect the obvious and stereotypical role of women. Having had no friends during her first year of high school, Melinda befriends Heather, while Heather wants to be one of the Marthas. Trying to remain friends with Heather, she pressures Melinda: “She corners me after Spanish and begs me to help her. She thinks that the Marthas gave her a deliberately impossible job so that they could dump her (43). Soft-spoken Melinda doesn't reject his proposal and instead continues to help Heather. In this specific example, the Marthas reveal the typical woman...... middle of paper ...... the social norm makes it more difficult to mold the person. Melinda faces obstacles in just her first year, choosing which path to follow among the many obstacles she faces in the hallways. From Heather to the Marthas to the Cheerleaders, she struggles to decide whether or not she should be like them. She is also conflicted as she strives to be like the image revealed by Maya Angelou and the suffragettes. These different women that Melinda meets allow her to experience and learn from them through the challenges she faces. The lack of friends and communication pushes her to be submissive to others. Looking at what the suffragettes and Maya Angelou symbolize to women, she also takes action by showing how she grows and learns from her past teenage experiences. It is only the challenges posed by society that shape the adolescent experience..