Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, alcoholism, and abuse.

The novel’s protagonist, Maya Younger, is a passionate leader, a curious journalist, and a steadfast friend. She is a senior in high school, and the novel follows Maya’s final year of high school before she leaves her beloved Portland neighborhood to attend Spelman in Atlanta. She describes her hair as “long, black strands [that] twist like licorice and hang down [her] back, always braided” (12). Her hair comes to represent her Black racial identity as she remarks on the fact that her new white boyfriend, Tony, has not felt hair like hers before, and a new white friend, Kate, asks to touch it because she sees it as a novelty.

Maya cares deeply about her school and neighborhood, and she remains committed to justice even when she has to break the rules for the sake of her values. For example, after Principal Green cancels the school’s Black History Month celebration, she takes action by putting up educational posters about Black historical figures. When the principal suspends her as a result, she tells him, “I can’t be the student body president and not fight for the students” (249).