Adolescent Girls in Public Space: Toward a Framework for Action in Urban Design and Planning
Adolescent Girls in Public Space: Toward a Framework for Action in Urban Design and Planning

Summary/Abstract: This article reviews recent academic literature on adolescent girls in public spaces with the objective of defining a framework for action in designing and planning public spaces for adolescent girls. There is growing global relevance of this age group, which now represents over 16% of the world population. Despite their demographic weight, adolescent girls are often overlooked in urban studies, which tend to focus on either children or adult women. Anchored in a gender-sensitive planning framework, this study conducts a scoping literature review following PRISMA guidelines, reviewing 2,737 documents and analysing sixty-eight publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection between 2010 and 2025. The findings are grouped by implications for planning and design. The review also identifies significant gaps in the literature, including limited evaluation of effective strategies or design elements that promote adolescent girls’ use of public space, minimal focus on leisure environments, and scarce integration of cultural and social norms that shape gendered mobility. The findings underscore the fragmented research of intersecting issues such as violence, safety, adolescent needs, and spatial justice.

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