Young

Diane Middlebrook mentions in her biography that Sexton’s childhood included feelings of loneliness, feelings echoed in “Young.” The biography also details Sexton’s emotional distance from her two older sisters and her parents, who had strict rules, such as her father, who had alcoholism, requiring a certain type of dress for dinner. This distance from her parents appears in “Young” when the speaker observes her parents’ separate windows. Because Sexton was a bit messy and loud, she often ate dinner in a separate room with the housekeeper. Sexton found companionship with and parental love from her great aunt, who came to live with them, but her “Nana’s” deteriorating mental health forced her into a hospital, leaving Sexton with emotional scars.

Sexton developed a group of girlfriends in junior high and high school, becoming quite sociable, interested in fashion, and boy crazy, which led to her parents taking her out of public school and placing her in an all-female school. As the speaker in “Young” suggests she is not quite a woman, Sexton enjoyed her female development, stuffing her bra and putting on lipstick, for example, to appeal to the boys.

“Young” also depicts an adolescent questioning the