Images of adolescence in Francesca Allen's "Girls! Girls! Girls!"

London-based photographer Francesca Allen captures the strength and fragility of female adolescence in her five-year-long series "Girls! Girls! Girls!"

From the Series

Francesca Jane Allen’s series Girls! Girls! Girls! captures the intimate and delicate transitional period between adolescence and womanhood. The images are playful and often enchanting, and juxtapose diaristic images with more posed portraits. Her sister and two friends appear often in the images, which Allen collected over a five-year period.

The series, Allen explains, was as much about her own adolescence as it was about her subjects. Now, as a young 20-year-old, Allen admits that she is struggling to continue with the project now that she has left her teenage years behind.

The photographs reveal the strength and fragility of adolescence, the bonds of friendship and love, and the discovery of sexuality and identity.

These coming-of-age images have been exhibited at The Photographers Gallery, Southbank Centre and the Serpentine.