Inspired heavily by the Virginia Woolf's novel, The Waves, Dirty Girls tells the story of four girls coming of age in coastal Texas. Told through interior monologues, Dirty Girls explores themes of adolescent girlhood from the various perspectives of those who live it. Carmel has always been on the outside looking in, envious of the prettier, thinner, blonde girls who seem to own everything and everyone. Christina protects her, attempting to straddle the line between sexual awakening and childhood innocence. Lauren grapples with her lesbian sexuality in a time and place where such an identity is forbidden. And Taylor suffers the consequences of her grown-too-fast flashy ways. All four girls overlap and change, though through their interiority the reader comes to realize no girl is spared the struggle of the patriarchy.