Margarita might have made a few mistakes. She's shot up heroin, been in juvenile hall several times, brought a gun to school and threatened to kill herself, given birth to two children and writes: "I am a poor alcoholic."

But upon meeting Margarita, one can see she is indeed a nice and good girl. She's only 15.

Margarita resides at Aviva, a residential treatment center for "troubled" girls in Los Angeles, California, one of the many programs of this sort throughout the country. Physically, emotionally and sexually abused, neglected and abandoned young women between the ages of 13 and 18 live at Aviva, which boasts an on-premise school and offers family and individual therapy as part of their rehabilitation program. The girls are in what's called "the system," placed at the center by social workers and parole officers -- some from the Department of Children Services, most fresh out of Juvenile Hall.

Out of the thirty-six girls who live there at one time, over a dozen gangs are represented. There are also runaways, prostitutes, junkies, thieves. Some are suicidal, others are homicidal. They're covered with tattoos, burn marks and scars. And in almost every girl's room at Aviva, there on her bed sits a teddy bear.

"Yo! What's up? My name is Tonisha but they call me Little Smurf or Critter! I am 14 years old and I'm a Virgo. My hobbies are basketball, baseball, volleyball and talking to my stuffed animals -- (We have a lot in common my stuffed animals and I.)"

* * *

At the age of 16, a striking young brunette woman with several tattoos and shocking blue eyes, consistently writes about her tormented life full of terrifying circumstances, morbidity, drugs, destruction and death. Ironically, her name is Serenity.

Reading of her past and present pain, it was no surprise that when I first met Serenity, she was hostile, raging and rebellious. In workshops, she almost always refused to participate and when she did, her writing would be scrawled heavily and almost illegibly across the page. Yet her insight and brilliance managed to peek through the furious facade.

In a poem for her deceased mother, Serenity lets us in on what happened when she was just five years old.

HE TOOK HER LIFE THE WAY
THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE MINE
Written for my mother Maureen....
Dec.17th, 1952-Dec 30th, 1979.
SHE WAS MY MOTHER
NOT A DRUG USER AT ALL
A WOMAN IN THE WORLD
WHERE THE SPACE WAS TOO SMALL
THE ADDICTION GREW STRONGER
THE LOVING GREW WALLS
THAT'S WHEN HER LIFE TOOK A MASSIVE FALL
SHE WAS ALL ALONE
IN HER WORLD OF HATE
SUICIDE WAS ALL SHE SAW
THAT WAS HER FATE
SHE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE MANY TIMES BEFORE
BUT IN HER EYES, LIFE WAS ONLY A LOCKED DOOR
NO WAY TO BREAK THROUGH
NO WAY TO WALK
SHE TRIED TO FLY
BUT THE MASTER ONLY BALKED
HER LIFE WAS EMPTY
THERE WAS NO PLAN
THAT'S WHEN SHE MET DEATH
IN THE FORM OF A MAN
THE MAN WAS EVIL WITH AN INGENIOUS PLAN
TO MOLD HER OF HELL AND CUT HER LIFE SPAN
TO MAKE HER LIVE LOCKED UP IN SATAN'S CAN
HE MADE HER PREGNANT
AND CARRY HIS DEVIL'S SPAWN
AND WHEN HIS WORK WAS OVER
IT WAS TIME HE MOVED ALONG
HE DROVE HER INSANE
TO A LIFE OF DISTORTION AND PAIN
WHERE THE ONLY THING SHE LIVED FOR
WAS THE NEXT SLAM TO THE VEIN
WHEN THE MAN TURNED THE TABLES
SHE TRIED TO STOP THE PROCESS BUT
WAS UNABLE
HE KNEW THE TIMING WAS NOW
AND SHE WOULD NOT FIGHT
THAT IS WHEN SHE BURNED TO DEATH
ON THAT DARK AND MOURNFUL NIGHT!
FOR MY MOTHER MAUREEN
CAUSE OF DEATH IS SUICIDE
MY MOTHER POURED GASOLINE ON HER BODY
AND SET HERSELF ALITE!
DECEMBER 30TH, 1979.

* * *

Whom can these young women turn to?

"I am what society just puts in the back of their heads to forget about. As if we're the last thing in the world they need to worry or think about. And you know what? It really does suck. We get very lonely, stressed out, depressed and scared of how long society will keep us in here. I know it's not just on society, because a good portion goes on us, but who is to say that we should stay in a confined place?... It's not very reassuring when people don't trust you. And to make it worse, they don't get to know you. They read a file and then again, they judge you. Not by your personality or anything like that. But instead by our past, or our mistakes."

Sandy, age 16

Yolanda believes the antidote for the kind of alienation many teenagers feel, lies with others:

"Some of the bad things that happen is they lock innocent kids like me up. We don't only need to be locked up we need for people to take time up with us. It is so easy for adults to say thumbs down but we need those parents to also say I know he's done wrong but I still believe in him. And if parents, Adults, and role models do this, we wouldn't have so many young teenagers give up."

* * *

And Serenity reaches for peace:

"One day I will claim what is mine. The soul of a child drained from her inner shell. With no soul and to be condemned to immortal despair has damned me to walk the land till one day I take back my lost and crying soul. Then I will be at peace and able to finally let my spirit free from the abomination it was sentenced unto...