Making me with others-gendered meanings of youth and youthfulness among young female disabled assistance users

The paper explores how disabled girls with Personal Assistants (PA:s) in a Swedish context constitute themselves as subjects in relation to intersecting meanings of age, gender, space, time and disability. The results illuminate the importance of social spaces and social relationships for the girls' forming their sense of selves. Similar to ablebodied girls, disabled girls' transition into adulthood can be viewed as a yoyo-transitions, entering and exiting different adult positions several times. Unlike ablebodied girls, they enter adult positions not commonly associated with youths, such as work leadership positions in relation to adult employees, such as the adult PA. This implies that they to some extent manage their own process of becoming an adult. Our findings stress the importance of recognition and awareness of disabled girls transition to adulthood as different not pathological to nondisabled girls', where consideration is taken both to individual needs and preferences of female assistance users. Points of interest All girls need to develop their sense of themselves to become women Disabled girls with personal assistants find it difficult to live ordinary lives as girls without the support of external personal assistants With the help of personal assistants disabled girls can participate in the places and with the people they choose themselves The relationship with the personal assistant put demands on the disabled girl to become a woman faster than abledbodied girls, in the same time it can hinder the girl's development into a woman It is important for practioners and policymakers to recognize the dual role of personal assistants in disabled girls lives