DREAM FUTURES: STORYTELLING PRACTICES ON PINTERESTByBree Danielle GannonA THESISSubmitted toMichigan State Universityin partial of the requirementsfor the degree ofCritical Studies in Literacy and PedagogyΠMaster of Arts 2016iiABSTRACTDREAM FUTURES: STORYTELLING PRACTICES ON PINTERESTByBree Danielle GannonThis paper details research exploring how young women tell their stories on the website Pinterest. These stories are complicated by their religious identities and the negotiation between 
the dream and the real in relationship to their futures and the ideologies they believe in. They are 
also complicated by the historical relationship between women, religion, and reduced educational 
opportunities and expectations. The research was conducted over an 18-month period using 
a mixed methods design, including recording of pins, visual and textual coding, interviews, 

for women, fipurity manualsfl and other religious texts were used. This work is based in both 
participant and community based research, as I am a participant both on Pinterest and in the 
religious community. This research will provide  insights into youth digital composing practices, 
increase understanding of the impact religious culture has on young women and will explore how 
this culture impacts their dreams and future plans.iiiTABLE OF CONTENTSLIST OF TABLES          vLIST OF FIGURES          viBEGINNING           1 My Story          4METHODOLOGY          6 Feminist Rhetorical Methodologies      6 Community and Relationship        8METHODS           11 Study Timeline         11 Recruitment and Study Formation       11 Study Outline          12PINTEREST           13THE STORIES       15 Introduction    15THE STORY OF BELIEF      17 Why is Belief Important to Look at?   17 Chapter Summary   18 Participant™s Stories   19  Rachel     19  Andrea  19  Laura  21  Lisa   22  Julie  22  Hannah   22 Historical Connections Between Women, Religion, and Education  23 Religious Guides for Women  25THE STORY OF DREAMING    31 Online and fiThe Worldfl   31 Introduction  35 Participant™s Stories    37  Lisa   37  Laura   39  Hannah  43  Rachel          46  Julie   48iv  Andrea  51CONCLUSION    54 BIBLIOGRAPHY  59vLIST OF TABLESTable 1 - Timeline of Study         11viLIST OF FIGURESFigure 1- Pinterest Exercise Memes        2Figure 2- Example Pinterest Board Page       13Figure 3- Rachel™s fiJesusfl Board        19Figure 4 - Andrea™s fiI <3 Jesusfl Board       20Figure 5 - Andrea™s Quote Board        20Figure 6 - Laura™s fiFaithfl Board        21Figure 7 - Laura™s fiBeing an Adultfl Board       40Figure 8 - Hannah™s Quote Board        43Figure 9 - Julie™s Printed Book of her fiPicture a Dayfl Board    49Figure 10 - Andrea™s Wedding Board       52Figure 11 - Rachel™s Wedding Board       52Figure 12 - Laura™s Wedding Board        531BEGINNINGfiBe a good girl.fl If there could be one mantra taken from my Evangelical Christian upbringing, 
this would be it. How does this short, four word statement shoulder the implications, ideologies, 
and boundaries it implies? What does it mean to be figoodfl or a figirl?fl How is being a good girl 
different from being a good boy? How does one be Πin their essence or actions Πgood? Why is 
goodness so important?  The following study opened the trunk of my childhood, exposing all of 
the cross stitched homilies, underlined verses in my illustrated children™s bible, and the memories 
of dress shoes dangling beneath adult size chairs. Books I read in my teenage religious hope and 
table.  Resurfaced old pictures led to renewed connections across space online. I dug through the 

boyfriend, now husband, guiltily took off when we broke the promise he made at fourteen. I held 
the ring in my palm. It was heavier than its size would indicate. How small the frame and how 
heavy the weight of being a good girl. But this is not simply a story about being figood.fl This is an exploration into the connections between how this weight or imperative of being a good girl leads to decreased expectations and 
educational opportunities for young women. It is a story of how a community can shape and 
form actions outside of that community into the educational sphere, and how often those outside 
are not aware of the controlling sweep of that community.  This is a story about tensions and 
contradictions, about should and ought to and can™t. It is about dreaming and cleaning up those 
dreams to match the ideologies and reality you live in. This study is about standing in the middle 
of the dreams of others and watching this shifting take place, the brush strokes whitewashing this 
or that, the colors that refuse to be covered. This study is about compassion and understanding 
for those caught in these dream acts, working so hard to make everything right and good. This is also a story of researching while caught between two worlds Œ academic and home. 2How does one cast a critical eye on people you care about? Is it even possible to gain ‚critical distance?™ Is it necessary? Or does critical closeness actually lead to insights that distance would 
not allow? How does one ethically engage with data, the results of which might not please your 
participants or your participants™ families? These questions sound lofty, and the answers seem 
elusive and may not entirely be found here, but all of these questions and the search for their 
answers are what guide this work. To be honest, they are more than questions, they are life 
decisions that will form who I am as a person and as a scholar. Once the words I write here go 
out into the world, I cannot take them back, and I ask myself what happens when people I care 
about read them and possibly ideologically disagree with them. These questions, some of them lifelong, began to coalesce around an academic project in the Fall of 2012 with one simple question presented to my university freshman writing class. I asked them who might be the audience behind a series of Pinterest memes (Figure 1). When setting up this activity, I imagined the audience for these memes consisted of housewives 
and elementary school teachers who pinned activity ideas during recess. Instead, my 18-19 
year old students emphatically told me the audience was young women, primarily between the 

Research Center, in April 2015, the majority of Pinterest users were women with the primary Figure 1 - Pinterest Exercise Memes3age demographic being 18-29 year olds. These statistics do not account for young women under the age of 18, but they lend a glimpse towards the growing demographic of young people using 
Pinterest. The question began to emerge: what impact do these pins, and Pinterest on a whole, 
have on young women? Though I began with wanting to know how Pinterest impacted young women, I found the young women I observed and interviewed were not neutral bodies being acted upon by a site. Instead, 

and to negotiate the tensions between those dreams, reality, and religious teachings. They use 

themselves and for an audience of their peers. Through this story of their stories online and 

participants have with religion; (2) how these religious ideologies have historically had an impact 
on women™s long term educational achievement; and (3) how young women use digital spaces to 
form stories about themselves and to negotiate tensions between the dreaming and the real. 

exploring the idea of stories. At this point in the paper, I share some of the data from the study 

establish relevance for what immediately follows- the exploration into the connections between 

historical connections, and moving into present day. Coupled with the present day is a rhetorical 
analysis of a book entitled Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy. Two of my participants were 
reading this book during the study, and a close examination is important as it represents one 
means and method for establishing women™s roles in the church. 4After establishing the religious aspect of the participants™ lives and the historical relevance and importance of this, the paper moves towards looking at how these elements undergird the stories 
they tell about themselves in relationship to dreaming and planning for their futures. Before 
online spaces due to their religious beliefs. This also offers another layer of complexity to their 
stories. After all of these layers, we reach the heart of the work- the stories of the participants. I 

which my participants live and navigate. This background illuminates some of the meaning my 
participants are making with their stories, their dreaming, and their planning. My StoryReligious ideologies delayed higher education in my own life because as a woman, my primary 
roles were within the domestic sphere as wife and mother, so taking out loans or investing 
into my education were not deemed necessary. From the earliest time I can remember, the 
my education, I excelled among my peers and school was a place of curiosity and interest, but 
during my latter high school years, it became apparent that education beyond high school was 
not feasible. My parents took no interest in me taking the ACT or SAT, and I paid for the tests out 
of my own money. Even though I took at least six AP classes, I never took a single test because 
I did not have the money and more frighteningly, I did not believe I could pass in spite of having 
all A™s at one of the top high schools in my home state of Michigan. When it was discovered that 
I did not even qualify for student loans because of my parent™s income (most likely this form 
same was true for my sister who had full tuition soccer scholarships to several schools, but did 
not have money for room and board. On the contrary, my three brothers were paid for. I quickly 
became married and pregnant and did not return to school until 10 years later.5This journey and having to push out of the invisible, yet powerful, cultural boundaries around my life has caused me to have a complicated relationship with my community. I still attend the same 
church I grew up in with my immediate and extended family, as well as my husband™s family, but 
I also recognize that I am not a part in the same way I was before. Being a part of the community, 
their presence and potential readership is ever before me as I write. Know that I approach the 
terminology and ideas expressed here with respect and acknowledgement of the power behind 
them for millions of lives.6METHODOLOGY 

began from multiple experiences coming together. The rationale and methodology for this 
study are part of the weave of my life as a researcher, scholar, and person. Acknowledging 
the complexities and contradictions that can emerge from including intersectionality and 

is a practice that is foundational to feminist research methods (Schell 2010, Calafell 2010, 
Royster 2000) and is used throughout my research as a way to constantly acknowledge the 
insights, affordances, and limitations of writing within the community I came from and am a 
part of. I wrestle throughout this study with choices such as using ‚within™ instead of ‚about™ in 
writing. Truly, it is both. Patti Lather in her article fiPostbook: Working the Ruins of Feminist 
Ethnographyfl characterizes her struggle to write the stories of women with AIDS when she talks 
about fi‚both getting out of the way and in the way™ of the stories that belong to othersfl (207). 
In my work, I hope to allow the young women to tell their stories, but I also recognize that 
my history, culture, story, and purposes become mixed up in the telling. Because of this mix, I 
somewhat intentionally get fiin the wayfl by including my story directly, so the color of my thread 
of thinking that a researcher, especially one working closely with personal topics, can operate 
objectively or as a disconnected subject. I rely on Walter D. Mignolo™s concept fiI am where I do 
and thinkfl instead of fiI think therefore I am.fl (xvi). This fiwherefl is not necessarily a physical 
space, though that is an element of it, but the cultures, beliefs, communities, and bodies that 

observations, and analysis.  Feminist Rhetorical MethodologiesRoyster and Kirsch (2012) in their book Feminist Rhetorical Practices talk about the importance 7of ficritical imaginingfl in the research process and allowing for a seemingly simple question or wondering to percolate inside of ourselves for a time. Royster notes in a longer but valuable 
quote
 fiI developed the habit of listening to the simple questions that came to my mind about the  lives, conditions, work and contributions of African American women, rather than  assuming that the goal of my scholarship, in a sense, should be to wait in taking myself    and my own questions seriously until I might be able to structure well-formed,  studiesfl (81). Throughout this study, I continually had to remind myself to give space to my questions and take 
them seriously as seeds towards more situated, developed thinking. This sort of commitment 
to critical imagining also honors our participants, especially young ones, in that we allow for 
space for their thoughts, questions, and ideas that may seem unformed or new to them and 
most certainly to us. This commitment allows that participants™ small observations or offhand 
comments in an interview may develop into something important. This methodology becomes 

research. By honoring my own ideas and questions as a researcher, I develop this practice of 
honoring as I move out into communities.In allowing for critical imagination during the early part of my study, a text was brought to my attention that may have been easily overlooked as outside the scope of the study. One of the 
participants in her women™s bible study group was reading a book entitled, Authentic Beauty, 
by Leslie Ludy. Books, such as this one, are written expressly for young, single women in the 
church, and they discuss sexual purity as well as what it means to be a woman in the church 
community. As a young person, I had encountered several of these books, but in many ways, 
did not still imagine they were used as tools with young women. This book and others like it are 
useful in looking at ways gender roles are reinforced in the community. Authentic Beauty will be 8explored further in this study. on my own life, my body often has a visceral response. It feels a bit like stepping back into that 
same place of guilt and shame when looking at some of the ideas and mindsets I operated from 

to usurp my own intrinsic doubts and ideas.  It is hard to acknowledge the position I came from, 

those moments and offer that younger version of myself some grace and comfort and remind 
myself that here, in this place 2016, is where I am now. Royster and Kirsch acknowledge the 
body in research in their discussion of strategic contemplation. They encourage slowing down 
and allowing for moments of contemplation and mindfulness regarding not only our thoughts, 
but our bodies, in research and writing. They say, fiWe recognize the senses as sources of 
information in rhetorical performance and analysis of performancefl (94). The noting of how the 
research feels in the body has also been helpful for me in recognizing that sometimes feeling 
sick to your stomach or unsettled is okay and part of the research process. It is not necessarily a 
sign that I am headed in the wrong direction or should stop altogether, but it is my body™s way 
of letting me know that this mental work has an effect on my overall wellbeing. Acknowledging 
and accepting my own discomfort and tension allows me to more carefully look at the ideologies 
my young participants are engaging with. I am able to attempt to move beyond immobility at the 
emotion and compassion and instead look towards infrastructural changes and rational arguments 

member of that community, appreciating the positive, while also critically examining that which 
is destructive and in need of change.Community and RelationshipAlongside of the awareness of how exploring past community strictures that had a role in my 9life impact my physical and mental self, I am ever aware of the tension of working within a community I am an active member in. Most of the participants I encounter in other social spaces 
and have known their families for years. I see them at church functions, sporting events, school 
events, and even socially in my own home. Andrea M. Riley Mukavetz (2014) comments on 
this tension in her piece fiTowards a Cultural Rhetorics Methodologyfl when she asks fiHow do 
we negotiate the complexity of writing as the arms of the institution while being responsible 
and accountable to the cultural communities we work with and for?fl (110). She answers this 
question by regarding story as theory and practicing fithere-nessfl in her work, fiThere-ness, 
as a practice, is about being attentive to how relationships and space impact the opportunity 
for and construction of knowledge makingfl (120). The relationships with my participants are 
the strongest guiding principle in my work. If a question or portion of the study is damaging 
to the relationship between myself and the participants, it will be removed. Abiding by this 
relational principle also helps insure that emotional harm does not come to our participants. The 
importance of relationality is echoed further in Mukavetz™s work when she says, fiTo build a 
cultural rhetorics methodology is to resist the notion that community-based research should be 
replicable. Relationships are not replicablefl (121). By placing relationship, community, and story 

researchers in that the work we do is important and not replicable by another. At times, relational 
community based research is seen as less valuable than hard data and quantitative research, but 
by acknowledging and accepting that our work is not replicable, we value the work done in 
relationships as valid academic endeavors. Jeff Grabill (2012) in his work fiCommunity Based Research and the Importance of a Research Stance.fl talks about fimaintainingfl relationships through ongoing work together (217). He 
highlights that it is the mutual work together that maintains and builds relationships. He notes, 
fiEven more important is the value of maintaining that relationship through new shared work. 
If maintaining the relationship is a priority, then many decisions during a research process will 10be informed by this principlefl (217). Grabill™s work challenges me to consider the fiusefulnessfl in what I am doing with the community. He proposes that we work alongside community 
members in the fipractices of research, analysis, and writingfl (213). In my case working with 
young women, the process of research may be new to them, but I address this as best I can with 
allowing the participants to ask questions during the interview process and asking them to help 
make sense of the material gathered. Often, their questions and thoughts were generative and 

11METHODSStudy TimelineBelow is a table detailing the timeline of the study (Table 1).Fall 2014Initial questions formedWinter 2015Solicit ˜rst three participants for class project. Conduct ˜rst wave of study.Fall 2015-Spring 2016Solicit three additional participants. Conduct second wave of study.Summer 2016Finalize study and compose re˚ectionsTable 1 - Timeline of StudyRecruitment and Study FormationWhen the study began, I did not intentionally seek out young women from the religious 
community. Instead, I solicited a convenience sampling of three young women ages 14-15, 
pulling from young women in my acquaintance. My daughter was fourteen in 2015, and I asked 
three of her friends to participate. Later, I added three more participants ages 14-17, through 
a snowball sampling with two of the three coming from recommendations. Prior to initiating 
contact with the participants, I sought permission from their parents to participate in the study. I 
have regular contact with most of my participants through local community events outside of the 
study, and with some of them, I have known their families for many years. The study had two waves with each wave lasting for a period of four months. IRB approval was wave consisted of following the participants on Pinterest and recording their pins in each board, 

board additions. Because each of my participants had a quote board, I selected the most recent 20 
quotes from each participant™s board and performed a discourse analysis on the texts looking for 
patterns individually and between participants based on words used in the quotes.  I used screen 12shots to capture the quotes as well as to capture any pins that were unique. Then, I conducted a recorded interview based on 19 questions along with follow up questions. For one of the 
interviews, the parent was present for its entirety, participating at times. Three of the interviews 
had parents intermittently present. Two of the interviews were held at the public library with no 
parent present. Study Outline1. Qualitative
  the following:
  Ł Charting how many pins are placed onto each board looking for patterns in     board popularity and frequency  Ł Recording number of filikesfl given (if any)     activity a. Interviews  Ł Conduct recorded interview with participants after observing for minimum of 3    months using IRB approved questions.   Ł Photograph craft items made from Pinterest2. Quantitative
 a. Code fiquotefl boards and look for patterns in words used in comparison to other   participants
 b. Code titles of boards (some of the only participant created text)3. Rhetorical Analysis
 Authentic Beauty by  Leslie Ludy, as a way to discern community beliefs and teachings regarding 13  women.PINTEREST
Pinterest resembles a self constructed magazine with its prevalence of images related to fashion, 

active users. (fiBy the Numberfl). Pinterest is not necessarily designed to capture past events 

hoped for events, activities, and purchases. Users fipinfl photos or content from Pinterest or the 
Many of these pins contain links to their originating websites, which can lend towards creating 
or purchasing whatever is displayed in the picture. According to a survey done by Steelhouse, 
Pinterest users are twice as likely to purchase off Pinterest than Facebook, and according to a 
study done by Rich Relevance in 2012, users spend more off links from Pinterest than Facebook 
- 168.93 versus 94.70. A study was conducted in 2012 examining the top boards or fimotivationsfl 
for using Pinterest. They followed over 2 million users and 800 million pins. According to the 
study, females pinned primarily in boards related to food and drink, home décor, and DIY crafts. 
Women™s fashion was ranked third (Ottoni et al).  The security and privacy policy of Pinterest is 
fairly open with the ability to fifollowfl any pinner you like without explicit permission. Several Figure 2- Example Pinterest Board Page14of my participants, especially the younger ones, were allowed on the site as it was deemed fisafe.fl Although the youth demographics are not accounted for on Pinterest, there is no age limit 
as there is with other sites such as Facebook. Through my discussions with my participants, 

individual account on. Because of these open parameters and its commercial importance, Pinterest is often fertile ground for large-scale research. Data driven studies have been conducted examining user 
motivations, consumer tendencies, and pin circulation. But many scholars are interested in 
another unique facet of Pinterest: 85% of its users are female according to Accupol in March 
2014. Pew Research Center in its 2012 study corroborates this statistic, noting that there are 

research center monitors. With Pinterest having a primarily female user base, rhetoric scholars, such as Cindy Tekobe, Katherine Deluca, Mathew A. Vetter, and Lindsay Harding, to name a few, have examined the 
impact of the site in maintaining gender norms as well as how users are aware of this norming 
and work to subvert it. Operating from the notion that the work done on Pinterest is valid 
rhetorical engagement, which Tekobe and Deluca argue, I began with the simple question: how 
are these young women telling their stories on Pinterest?  15THE STORIESIntroduction
With the multidimensionality of the participants™ lives and personalities, each line of text and 
pin they select on Pinterest becomes a story of its own. Selecting which pieces or aspects of this 
study to include here was challenging. Know this is only a snapshot of a snapshot of the whole 

the methodology section, so my own story plays a part in the stories I select to tell here. Three 
main areas came back to me repeatedly over the course of the eighteen months working with 
my participants. These areas or themes felt the most pressing, the most singular. They were the 

that follow. I then examine how the participants see themselves telling their stories, which were 
driven by their ideas regarding the future, dreaming, and the real.  The idea of story is used here because of its unique capabilities. Thomas King(2005) in his book The Truth About Stories notes fiThe truth about stories is that is all we arefl (2). He describes 
the Western way of typically engaging with stories where we look for dichotomies Œgood and 
evil, light and dark. He says, fiWe are suspicious of complexities, distrustful of contradictions, 
fearful of enigmasfl (25). But this story of my participants is full of complexities, contradictions, 
and enigmas. We are suspicious because complex stories resist the quantitative urge that brings 

they may move slightly, so that when the reader engages with the material here, they are reading 

space for contradictions and change honors my participants™ complex and shifting lives. Digital 
space initially may seem to resist storytelling with its complexities and contradictions and seem 
more suited towards the quantitative, but perhaps the recursive, nonlinear, nature of the internet 
is conducive to this quality of storytelling. Roger Saul (2014) notes in his article fiAdolescence 16and the Narrative Complexities of Online Lifefl that young people are using digital spaces to recursively create their identity online. He notes identity formation in general is often viewed 
as a more linear process due to the narrative model stories are often told in. He says this view 
can fiperhaps even suppress what is really a more complicated process of subject making - one 

meaning making.fl Within digital spaces, people can go back and alter the information presented, 
essentially erasing any markings of a past identity for the new one. As Saul notes, linearity is a 
17THE STORY OF BELIEF The story of religious belief my participants tell is likewise full of enigmas, subtleties, and 
recursive work. Their stories of belief resist the black and white, in or out binary, with many of 
them working along a spectrum of belief rather than a simple yes or no, labeled or unlabeled.  
Even though there was no direct line of inquiry into this topic during the study, their different 




board entitled fiI <3 Jesusfl to another simply entitled fiFaith.fl During the interview, I asked the 
question, fiWhat might someone not know about you from looking at your Pinterest boards?fl 

fiThat is more just like a personal thing.fl ParticipantDenominationMethod of Identi˜cationRachelNon-Denominational EvangelicalfiJesusfl boardAndreaBaptistfi<3 Jesusfl boardLauraBaptistfiFaithfl board and interviewJulieCatholicPersonal Knowledge Œ No 
direct identi˜cation in studyLisaNon-Denominational 
EvangelicalInterviewHannahNon-Denominational 
EvangelicalfiFaithfl board and interviewWhy is belief important to look at? With my own personal story of how religious ideologies impacted my life, I wanted to 
understand further how my participants negotiated some of these same teachings. There is a 18strong historical connection between religion and women™s literacy (e.g. Collins and Blot 2003; Hull et al, 2014, Godley 2004). This connection seems important to explore in my participant™s 
stories as well as how it may impact education and society more broadly with 73% of Americans 

statistic does not necessarily detail the extent of church involvement or indicate a belief in the 


religion and treatment of women is not only a local issue, it is a global one (eg.Ramdas, 1984).
In addition to the direct connections between religion and women™s literacy, studies have been 

2013; Godley, 2004;Cintron, 1998; Paris, 2011).Chapter SummaryThis chapter will explore the following: (1) how my participants use Pinterest in relationship 
to their religion; (2) a more detailed exploration of the historical connections between women, 
religion, and education; (3) a glimpse at religious figuidesfl for women; (4) connections with how 
religion might impact women today in light of history and current figuidesfl or parameters. 19Participants™ StoriesRachel
Rachel, whose fiJesusfl board is her third highest out of 35 boards total primarily pins Bible 

considering she has a total of 202 followers overall. Rachel is very vocal about her faith, and it 
plays a fundamental role in her and her family™s life. She was homeschooled until middle school 
for religious reasons. If we look closely at her fiJesusfl board, the word filovefl is repeated. Her 
board title does not address a denomination or system of belief directly, but invokes a name. This 
may emphasize an intimacy or comfort with her faith. AndreaAndrea also frequently pins verses on her board entitled fiI <3 Jesusfl, but has a distinct emphasis 
in her verses on missions and helping others (Figure 4). The images are interesting with a 
predominance of black faces and her association of religion with helping those different than 
herself. During the study, her family was in the process of adopting two young boys from Haiti, 
so some of her particular emphasis may come from this change in her family group. Her pins 
also demonstrate a possible relationship between this family change and their shared religious Figure 3- Rachel™s fiJesusfl Board20beliefs. The pins certainly demonstrate a connection between her faith and fitravelfl to other places, fiorphans,fl and God ficallingfl her to work in places outside her ficomfort zone.fl
  When I coded Andrea™s quote board, she also had the most quotes with a religious emphasis. Of 
the participants, her family is one of the most adherent to religious teachings, homeschooling 
their kids for religious reasons (knowledge prior to study). Andrea had the highest instances of 
the word fiwe,fl such as in fimay we givefl as seen in Figure 5. Figure 5 - Andrea™s Quote BoardFigure 4 - Andrea™s fiI <3 Jesusfl Board21This fiwefl demonstrates a collective identity with others in a faith. From her quotes, it appears emphasis, for example. This group identity can be a positive thing with community building 
and support, but it can also have negative consequences if the group reinforces certain ideals 
prioritizing group maintenance over individual growth. She also had double the other participants 
with the words, fiDo,fl and fiDon™t.fl These words are used as seen in Figure 5, with fiDo small 
things..fl and fiDon™t forget.fl Even though these terms are often couched in more gentle language, 
they are related to the setting and enforcing of parameters that is often associated with religion. LauraLaura™s faith board, which is one her three most consistently pinned to, has a distinct emphasis 
on marriage and her role as a Christian woman. (Figure 6)  
One can see on the pins displayed here, which is a sampling of some of the 94 pins on this 
board, fiThe ten attributes of a Proverbs 31 wifefl and fiThe wife who bases her life on the Bible 
rather than emotions.fl Her faith is intricately woven with her desires for marriage and how she 
wants to live once that desire is achieved. Laura also pinned in this board almost as a practice 
with three to four pins each week consistently. It was as if she had a commitment to pinning a Figure 6 - Laura™s fiFaithfl Board22certain amount each week to balance out the more exhaustive pinning in other categories. This commitment to faith pinning may also offset some of the guilt she expressed in the interview 
over her frequent wedding pinning. (Discussed further in study)LisaWhen I initially started following Lisa, I did not see any direct connections between her Pinterest 
activity and her faith. She did not have any boards or any particular quotes that lent towards 

not a prerequisite for participation in this study. When I interviewed her though and asked what 
someone might not know from looking at her Pinterest, she indicated they wouldn™t know about 
her faith because fithat is more just like a personal thing,fl so she did not put it on Pinterest. 
This is interesting in light of her awareness of the audience she is constructing her story for on 
Pinterest. In many ways, she is more aware that people are looking at her space, and this is also 
shown through her comments during the interview on how she aesthetically constructs her site, 
and her comments on other™s sites (discussed later in study).Julie Julie was my only participant who never directly intimated her faith either on Pinterest or in 
the interview. From personal knowledge prior to the study, I knew that she attended Catholic 
mass with her family, but her faith was not depicted on Pinterest in a faith board, in quotes, or in 
images. HannahHannah™s board entitled fiFaithfl had 16 of pins on it. During the interview, I asked her what 
people might know from looking at her boards, and she indicated that they would know she was 

the latter half of the study to grab some screen shots of her boards as examples of her pins. Her 23had deleted this board, but it does provide a necessary complexity for the study, especially when  
in relationship to the shifting nature of formative years. Whether or not her faith has changed or 
she has decided to make it more fipersonalfl as Lisa indicated, it is unknown. She is still active in 
her local church and attends weekly meetings, conferences, and summer seminars. But faith, like 
identity work, is shifting, growing, changing. It is an important reminder as part of this study that 
each participant™s beliefs can shift or change even as these words are being written. I show these different stories and expressions of faith on and off Pinterest to offer a sampling 

the same category of pinning. This is important because I seek to avoid generalizations and 
instead to show that even within this young group of women I might characterize in this study 
as fireligious,fl each has their own identity and relationship to religion. From one that views it as 
a very personal act to another viewing it as very public global social justice purpose to another 
looking at the role religious teachings plays in her future as a wife and mother. These screen 
shots also simply capture a moment in time, and just as the pins continue to change even hours 
after I took these shots, their religious identities also change and shift. Historical Connections Between Women, Religion, and EducationAt the same time each participant has their own individual relationship with their faith and 
religious identity, it is also important to look at how religion has impacted women on a broader 
scale. With the attention to individualization, it can be easy to forget the larger role religious faith 
plays on a collective level for its adherents. It is also easy to rationalize extremity as exceptional, 
educational experience impacted by religion, one particular area I wanted to explore was the 
correlations between religion, education, and women. 24Women™s education has a history of being interwoven with religious teachings regarding their roles in the domestic sphere. (Abbot, 2001; Ramdas, 1984; Collins and Blot, 2003). Religious 
teachings use morality (a code of right and wrong) as a means of controlling women™s literacy 
and conduct. Collins and Blot (2003) note that they have found through their historical research, 
fifamiliar links between political, economic and religious power and the desire to regulate 
literacy as a means of regulating conduct more generallyfl (p. 67). This conduct is often related 
to sexuality and the type of work they are allowed to engage in both in and outside of the home. 
The authors go on to discuss a study performed by Burke in which the firule of female illiteracyfl 
as established by Florentine monks in the 16th century says that women should not learn to read 

actsfl (p. 69). Abbot (2001) notes that during the Renaissance, even when women were educated, 
they were educated with the domestic in mind, fiGirls were educated to participate in the private 
life of the home, whereas boys were educated to participate in the public life of the Church 
and the statefl (p. 168). Even though these examples took place hundreds of years ago, they 
demonstrate a pervasive history of depriving education for women in the name of religion and 

having power and a voice in the public sphere. Another example given by Collins and Blot (2003) brings us much closer to the current time in the mid to late 20th century. They describe what is termed as the fiwomen™s sphere,fl 
which fiidealized roles in the family and communityfl (p.89). Women were allowed access to 
certain vocations as long as they had at their core care for others, such as charity and good 
deeds. Women were allowed to work in some educational capacities with the assumption that 
they would be more finurturingfl towards young children. Collins and Blot (2003) make a 
strong statement regarding this sphere, fiThe separation of spheres, as gender norms and lived 
realities, shaped women™s work opportunities in the expanding school system as well as the 
knowledge female students were prepared for and allowed access tofl (p. 90). The latter part 25of this statement regarding preparation and access speaks to female education in the religious community. With roles of mother and wife preordained, prioritized, and assigned a moral value, 
female students, though they may complete high school, are not necessarily invested into as a 
preparation for college in the way that young men are. With young men being assigned the role 
of fibreadwinnerfl and having to participate in the public sphere, their education is prioritized 
over women who will spend their adult years raising children and caring for a home. This 
expectation can limit the educational opportunities for women as they may not be given or seek 
out opportunities to enhance their education in ways that are needed as preparation for college. 
In addition to the literature discussing historical connections between religion and women™s 
literacy, more recent studies (Glass & Jacobs, 2005; Sherkat and Darnell, 1999) have been 
performed documenting the role of religion and women™s long-term educational and vocational 
attainment. A study performed by Glass and Jacobs (2005) found that religious conservatism 
in childhood affected women by fireducing their educational attainment, accelerating entry 
into marriage and parenthood, and increasing their conservatism on familial roles and 
responsibilitiesfl (p. 571). The study also echoed Collins and Blot™s (2003) overview as it 
says that women then worked less in adulthood and worked in more stereotypically female 
occupations (caregiver positions) when they were employed. The reduced work positions and 
career span impact women™s overall earning and vocational potential. These historical connections are alarming and may seem to be outliers in the Christian faith, but with the prevalence of people identifying as Christians in the United States, it is worth examining 
what traces these historical stories have today and how my participants may knowingly or 
unknowingly have a part to play in this story. Religious Guides for WomenOne of the ways that women™s roles in the Christian church are developed today is through 
26domestic. These books do not have an umbrella term, but they act as religious guides for women, and as they often emphasize purity and sexuality, I have termed them ‚purity manuals.™ These 
books are read in the home, but are often read in church sponsored discussion groups with other 
young women as well. They are primarily written for and read by younger teenage girls and seen 
corpus including works associated with the True Love Waits movement as well as the Daughter™s 
Heart events. Through the course of the study, I found that Andrea and Laura were reading one such book called Authentic Beauty, by Leslie Ludy (2003) with their high school girl™s small group. Because these books are a small, but powerful, piece of the cultural work to maintain women™s 
spheres and roles and my participants were reading them, they are worth exploring here. 
The table of contents titling the twelve chapters in Authentic Beauty includes titles such as fiThe 
Reviving of the Feminine Heart,fl fiLily Whiteness and Romance,fl and fiPreparing for Intimacy.fl 
Three chapters bear the subtitle fiFuture Husband Application.fl The book begins with the author 
describing her lifelong fairy tale to be a princess. This idea undergirds the whole book as she 


had longed for in her husband. Ludy describes the purpose of the book in this statement, fiThis book is an invitation for you to become one of those few in this generation: a set apart young woman who allows the passionate 
intimacy she experiences with her Prince to completely transform every area of her lifefl (41). 
Interestingly though, she does not describe any other area of her life other than her heterosexual 
romantic relationship with men. She ventures into discussing appearance and modesty, but that 
still all circles around the idea of pleasing or attracting future husbands. Nowhere is education 
or life vocation or relationships with others in and outside your community discussed. In many 27ways, this book is addressing how to stay pure and away from fisexual sinfl before marriage, but the methods it advocates, shrinking your world and funneling it into this one means, is 
representative of what happens overall in this community. Women are encouraged when they 
feel dissatisfaction or experience struggle, to eliminate areas of their lives and pull inside 
instead of being encouraged to get outside of the limits placed around them and engage in other 
possibilities in life: athletics, education, travel, friendships, meeting new and different people. 
This is discouraged because anything outside of the community is considered fithe world,fl and 
the world tempts you to sin. (More discussion of fithe worldfl and the internet in the section 
entitled The Story of Dreaming: Online and fithe Worldfl)One particular disturbing moment in the book is in a passage entitled fiAn Unforgettable Wedding Night.fl It describes a young couple, in love and newly married, showing up to their 
of this dream and the use of it for control and motivation is powerful to say the least as will 
be shown with the rest of the story. He carries the bride into the room and sets her down as he 
whispers, fiI have dreamed of this moment my entire life!fl a second iteration of the dream in 
less than a paragraph, followed by, fiI love you so muchfl (67). But then he smells something. 


sees a group of her ex-boyfriends against the wall. The author describes, fiYou glance over at 
your groom. He is hanging his head mournfully and dejectedly making his way back down the 
hallfl (68). The girl calls after him, and the groom states that he fijust can™t be with you tonight-
not like thisfl (68). The girl looks down and sees spaghetti sauce all over her dress and her 
dreams shattered.  Nowhere in this description is it discussed that the garbage may belong to 
the groom as well, it is simply assumed that it belongs to her. His ex-girlfriends do not line the 

purity, messiness, and shallow love are never called into question. The assumption of her fault 28and the lack of challenge to that assumption demonstrate a pervasive belief system. It places sexual responsibility on young women. These sorts of standards are highly enforced within the 
community and maintaining a core belief in the domestic sphere.In one section, Ludy discusses broader cultural assumptions to disprove them with her ideology. One key cultural assumption refuted is fiTo have a successful future, a young woman must 
carefully follow society™s pattern for successfl (85). On the outside, disproving this assumption 
might be valuable if in relationship to capitalist, impersonal patterns of success, but she goes 
onto describe her experience in relationship to education. She relays a personal story of college 
pressure in high school where she admittedly became figoal oriented and ambitious,fl but fithe 
tender patient whisper of my Prince continued to tug at my heart.fl (87).  She goes on to detail 

decides to leave high school,fl The most important focus of my life now was to build my daily 
existence around intimacy with Him in my inner sanctuary. I realized it was nearly impossible 
to do this with my current schedule, so (with plenty of fear and trembling!) I made the decision 
to continue my education at homefl (87). She goes onto detail how leaving high school and the 
pressure of college gave her the freedom to spend a substantial portion of her day fialone with 
her Princefl (in prayer) (88). The story does not relay what happened in regards to her education 
from that point. This is not to say that all homeschooled students are experiencing an inferior 
education, but to highlight the close association between sexuality, religion, and education, an 
association some of my participants are reading. This young girl quit school to maintain her 
intimacy with her Prince as means to remain pure as is insinuated by the nature of the whole 
conversation of the book around sexuality. Jonathan Alexander (2008) in his book for Composition Studies describes the power of these sexually based narratives and stories. He 29engages the stories we tell about sex and sexuality to probe them for controlling values and for 
ways to resist, when necessary, constraining formsfl (5). He goes on to note that sexual literacy is 
directly tied into being literate in our society and wrapped up in our notions of ficitizenship,fl and 
can have a direct impact on our fiparticipation in the democratic projectfl (4). Most importantly, 
he notes regarding the stories we tell fiabout sexuality are part and parcel, even central at times, 
to the stories we tell about ourselves, individually, collectively, and politicallyfl (4). Claire Gresle 
-Favier echoes the connection between sexuality and larger societal, political forces in Raising 
Sexual Pure Kids, fiProabstinence discourses –operate as tools in reasserting the illegitimacy 
of the government and of secular institutions and in reinforcing the feeling of conservative 
Christians that they belong to an oppressed minorityfl (152). Whether or not it is true that 
Christians are an oppressed minority in society, what is important is the fact that discourses and 

stories such as Ludy™s may seem somewhat harmless, but stories around sexuality play a direct 
role in the way we tell, form, and participate in stories about ourselves and our place in the 
world. With two of my participants reading this book, and potentially using it as a guide for their lives, these details are important not to overlook. They seem extreme, and because of this extremity, 
they are easy to dismiss. But they should not be dismissed as they are just one of many similar 
books. This book was given to my participants in a church sponsored group, which is a common 
occurrence. Elite Ben-Yosef (2011) in her article entitled fiLiteracy and Power: The Shiyour 
as a Site of Subordination and Empowerment for Chabad Womenfl notes in women™s religious 
groups, fisoft dominancefl is carried out fiby internalizing the behaviors, language, use of 
artifacts, and by physical presence, learners ‚realize™ their gendered positions and ensure the 
reproduction of the status quo of power relationsfl (59). She goes on to say that participants learn 
to fiaccept as ‚natural™ the existing culture structures and ideologiesfl (59). Within the groups Ben-30Yosef notes the women who lead these groups have been marked as fiwomen of valorfl by the learned males in the community, and in this way, by offering prestige to some of the fioppressed,fl 

Ben-Yosef 71). My participants may not be directly oppressed or hidden away as women in the 
church, but at times, they may be subject to this fisoft dominancefl as perhaps with the reading of 
Ludy™s book. As noted by Alexander, these views of their sexuality and roles within the church 
are fipart and parcel, even central at times, to the stories we tell about ourselves–fl (4). 31THE STORY OF DREAMINGWhat are the stories my participants tell about themselves? Religious beliefs are just one color, 
granted a central one, on the palette of my participants™ stories. I wanted to know how they 
viewed the whole palette of their story, and the identity work they saw themselves doing in this 
digital space. This chapter will explore the following: (1) the relationship between online activities and fithe worldfl; (2) the participant™s stories in relationship to their futures, the dream and the real. Online and fiThe WorldflResearchers have examined the complexities of analyzing digital and physical spaces side by 
side (Orgad, 2009; Leander & McKim 2003; Saul, 2014; Hine, 2009). Many ascribe to the view 
expressed by Leander and McKim (2003), fiParticipants weave these social spaces and relations 
into their lives in such a way that the online is experienced as real and as ‚commonplace™ and 

researchers initially assumedfl (218). Though I do not think my participants view their digital 
selves as entirely separate entities from their physical selves, they seemed to be profoundly 

online, and how others might view them uniquely online. For some of my participants, even 
engaging in or being online provides an element of tension for them.With the unique recursive storytelling capabilities online, Saul notes the recursive possibilities can have ficonsequencesfl in that fithe pervasiveness and intensities...increasingly work to render 
the material and the virtual inextricable within our everyday realities Πare possibilities for 
experiencing new ways of being in the worldfl (p. 67). I would argue that my participants know 
digital spaces can work in fiinextricablefl ways in their lives, and they push against this. They 
32regarding fithe world.fl These teachings about the world are often based around Bible verses, such as 1 John 2:15-16, fiDo not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is 

life Πcomes not from the father but from the worldfl (New International Version). The fiworldfl 
can mean many things, but it is often considered secular culture at large, in particular the media 
and entertainment industry of which the internet is considered a part. If the Christian community 
or church is the center of a bull™s-eye, concentrations of the world move out from there with the 
outer rim being the most worldly or dangerous. But in between that which is the most dangerous 
and the center Christian church, there are gradations that often require the individual Christian 
to discern whether or not the space or action in that moment is for the world or for God. Romans 
2:12 speaks to work of discernment in relationship to the world, fiDo not be conformed to this 
world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is 
the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfectfl (New International Version). In this verse, 
removal from the world is necessary to likewise discern the will of God and what is figood.fl This 
is reminiscent of Ludy™s leaving school. It can be a vicious cycle of tension each time a person 
who is striving to live in this way enters into secular culture. They must be vigilant in their 
discernment, but their ability to discern is at the same time under assault by the sheer proximity 
to the world in which it is most needed. In this case, it is often simpler to simply remain removed 

community. With my participants engaging in fithe worldfl each time they go on the internet, 
they are sometimes guarded and cautious about their interactions in that space. For some of the 
participants, this awareness is more acute, and for others, it is less important. 33about being online or on Pinterest, wrote a book called iparent. The book addresses parents and how to deal with fitechnology accelerating and threatening to engulf their adolescentsfl (back cover). He goes on to say, fiThe heart, mind, and healthy gender of your child is at stake.fl The 
book describes how technology has replaced healthy relationship development between men 
and women, which consequently leads to a crisis in masculinity and femininity, as idealized 
through Christian ideology. There is a correlation between technology and temptation or 
danger. Pearson notes, fiThere was a time when deviance required great effort–It™s not like that 
anymore. Deviance has become easy because technology is pervasivefl (49). The book concludes, 
fiThe youth culture is trending out of control, reaching its own stagnant cesspool of extended 
adolescence and debaucheryfl (124). This debauchery typically alludes to sexuality and gender as 
seen in this book with the chapter titles, fiBlurring Genderfl and fiHooking up.fl Pearson notes the 
important question to ask as parents to young people, fiWhat is the value of adulthood, with its 
traditional markers of marriage and parenting?fl (125). This question itself, through its wording, 
directs the reader to the ideal or intended answer with fivalue,fl fitraditional,fl and fimarriagefl 
used. He says ficulture,fl or the world as described prior, answers this question fiall day, every 
day- marriage and family are deadfl (125). The message being conveyed then is that digital 
spaces, such as Pinterest, are fraught with dangers and messages that may lead to deviance, 
gender confusion, and debauchery (sexual sin). This sexual sin can lead to grave, eternal consequences. As noted by Amy DeRogatis (2015) in fisexuality and salvation are closely linkedfl (3). She goes on to note that the consequences extend beyond the individual and into the community, fia person™s sexual misdeed 
has individual, communal, and eternal consequencesfl (3). If sexual sin can lead to grave 
communal and individual loss, and technology is a superhighway towards sexual sin, then 
technology itself is to be feared, guarded against, and used with a caution that recognizes eternal 
life and death are at stake. In general, young people may or may not fully grasp the weight of 
fieternal,fl but young Christians have been brought up to believe this centrality of eternity guides 34all decisions and purpose in their lives. All of this to say, religious young people approach technology and its implications and involvements in their lives with perhaps a bit more weight 
than researchers who view these spaces as seamless with their physical lives may recognize. 

with Andrea, I asked her if she was on any other social media sites besides Pinterest. She 
answered quickly and emphatically that no, she was not involved on any other sites, which 

too many sites was a negative thing. She repeated that she was not hardly even on Pinterest, 

weeks without any pinning at all. I imagined she must have moved on to other sites, but instead 
she was not utilizing any social media at all. I immediately wanted to ask her directly about 
the sense I had that she viewed social media as negative, but I hesitated because her father was 
nearby and I did not want to appear as if I was critically questioning that belief. I was already in 
the slightly precarious position of asking these questions as a researcher from a public, secular, 
institution and as someone who has a particular interest in digital spaces. Even though they know 
I am a part of the Christian community, our personal relationship was new, and I was sitting in 
that moment as someone who represents fithe world™sfl interests. In this particular encounter, 
I placed the continued relationship as the primary imperative over satisfying my curiosity or 
Laura also expressed some tension with being on the site and her beliefs. When I asked her what she would tell someone who was just joining Pinterest, she noted, fiDon™t get obsessed with it or 
like be covetous of it or with it because there is lots of home stuff too and like wedding things 
and my small group leader Amber, she would actually talk to me about that when she found out 
that I was on so much.fl Laura™s small group leader stepped in and offered her advice when she 
found out that Laura was spending so much time on Pinterest, which is reminiscent of the fisoft 
dominancefl discussed by Ben-Yoself. The site offered dangers of obsession and coveting. 35Pinterest does not seem to be as much of a direct sexual threat as other areas of the internet, which is often perhaps why young Christian girls such as Andrea are allowed on the site. But 
perhaps, it offers indirect sexual threats such as can be read underlying Laura™s comments. 

danger was related to wanting or obsessing over fihome stufffl and fiwedding things.fl Pinterest™s 
primary uses certainly lend to the evangelical emphasis on traditional marriage with its use for 
wedding planning, cooking, and the home. But what happens when you want marriage and home 
too much, and you are a teenager unable to marry and satisfy these desires anytime soon? This 
is one of the strange ironies or contradictions in the Christian evangelical faith. The idealization 
of marriage and home is used to motivate abstinence with the promises of a happy, and complete 
home in the future. And because marriage is the only sanctioned venue for sexuality, often 
the obsession with marriage is a response to healthy adolescent sexual need. The frequent 
obsessive marriage and home pinning becomes a way to simultaneously reinforce abstinence, 
but also serves as a constant reminder of that far off sanctioned sexuality. In the small group 
leader™s caution is a note of care not only towards coveting, but also possibly towards where this 

herself suddenly getting her hands on a credit card and purchasing these items she covets, but it 
lies in potential fideviancefl and fidebaucheryfl brought about by deep longing and want. Introduction

strong of a word, but they seemed in constant negotiation between what was a dream and what 
was reality or actually possible. This dream tension is wrapped up in what they are conveying 
on Pinterest about who they are versus what story their pins might tell. At times, this slight 
differentiation was fascinating, particularly when paired against what some of them believed 
they should be conveying. These dreams and stories of themselves are also wrapped up in their 36plans and hopes for the future. I found the younger my participant, the more they used the site to simply dream about the future, and the older they got, the more they moved towards using the 
site to actually plan the future and move towards firealfl life. Although, those younger dreamers 
were able to identify that their future selves might also move towards the firealfl as well.  It was 
a delight to see these young girls dreaming freely. It was also haunting to see their recognition of 
the time clock on those dreams, and that eventually they would have to give way to the real work 
of adulthood, a time where dreaming must move from their imaginations to being actualized on 
canvas. It was haunting to see them recognize their colors are limited.
It was haunting to see they also recognized restraint in attachment to morality. Pearson indicates 
in his book about technology, 
 fiThe giddy speed of technological advance has convinced most of us that possibilities are limited only by our dreams. If we can imagine it, we can do it. The only question that remains is ‚How long will it take?™ It wasn™t so long ago that ‚Can we?™ was held in check by ‚Should we?™ Moral restraint impacted both the speed and direction of technology™s impactfl (47).fl Pearson alludes to the past with the question fishould wefl in relationship to dreaming and 
technology, but my participants seem to carry this question with them right now. Their dreams 
are not only impacted by time limitations, but also by fimoral restraint,fl or I would argue by what 
they imagine the right way to live. board, I hesitated on a series of questions that almost seemed repetitive, but forged ahead 
anyway. The distinction in how my participants answered was fascinating. I asked the following 
questions in relationship to story:1. If someone was to look at your site and not know you, what do you think they would 
learn?2. How much do you feel this is a picture of you?373. If not, what is missing? What are the missing pieces?4. Five years from now, how do you think your pins would change? What would be different or the same?5. Tell me what story do you think your boards tell? 
participants answered uniquely from the direct line of inquiry into who they were. The following 
details how some of the participants answered these questions as well as how they talked about 

also seemed to capture their idea of dreaming versus what someone might learn about their real 
selves. Participants™ StoriesLisa
Lisa loves Pinterest. Of all my participants, she loves the site the most. It seems to appeal to her 
artistic sensibilities. She carefully constructs her boards in detail, paying attention to the aesthetic 
experience someone might have when looking at her boards. She pays attention to how her pins 
look, wanting them to figo together.fl She gave an example of her clothing board and how she 
only pins clothing pictures that have people in them rather than simply clothing laid out on a 
white background. She said she fiprefers the ones that are on people because they are more real,fl 
but also she seems to care that her site feels like a seamless experience for those who might 
be looking. Lisa also alluded profoundly to Pinterest as a place of dreaming and constructing 
an ideal image of her future life. When I asked her why she liked Pinterest, she noted, fiIt is 
my dream life. This is what I could be doing but I have to go to school and do homework. And 
I don™t have a job to afford all of this stuff I want to buy.fl Although most of the participants 
use the site to dream, for Lisa, it seemed that Pinterest most readily captured her ideal perhaps 
because of her connection to the artistic elements of the site (ficrafts, hair and makeupfl), and 38she saw much of her dream life through that lens. In her dream world, she could be creating beauty all around her and on her body without limits. The limits she imposes on this dream world 

construct the life she has dreamt up.Lisa out of all my participants did not seem to have her beliefs play a role in this dreamscape. 
about her from her boards, she said, fiProbably my faith. That is more like a personal thing.fl Her 
faith seemed to relate most closely to the firealfl in her life that was not a part of this dream life 
she had constructed. Her nod towards privacy and her aesthetic awareness on the site also speak 
towards this dream life constructed with an audience in mind. When we think of dreaming, we 
think of it as something internal, but in contrast, Lisa seems to think on the outward expressed 
version of her dream life and how others around might experience her. When I asked what someone might learn about her, she was the most short and vague in her answer, fiI hope they would learn I like cool stuff, and that I am just like pretty chill.fl In contrast, 
when I asked her about the story of her pins, she answered enthusiastically and elaborately, 
fiProbably that there is this cool girl that has cool clothes and cool hair and lives in an awesome 
house and travels and is great with makeup and has great accessories and clear skin and works 
out and has a cool apartment.fl Her pinning has created this whole narrative of her fidream lifefl 
which is written in what she owns and what she does. It is also written upon her body. She owns 
cool clothes, an awesome house, a cool apartment, has great accessories. It is not only what 
she owns, but what she does in travel and makeup application. Most importantly, this story is 
written on her body with clear skin, working out, and cool hair. When I asked her if her pins 
accurately represented her, her answer acknowledged this tension between her fidream lifefl and 
who she is in real life. She said, fiI feel like it is a pretty good picture of me but I feel like it is 
a representation of what I would like to be and what I would like to have.fl Then she checked 39herself, perhaps the moral limitations emerging, and said, fiThat sounds really materialistic.fl 
Pinterest as a dream and a representation of her dream or ideal self. As Lisa moves into the future, she described her pinning becoming more firealisticfl and full of fihelpful things.fl Similar to other participants, she forecasts her pins will become more based 
in usefulness, such as saving money, budgeting, and pins related to cosmetology, which is her 
professional goal. For now, she recognizes that she does not pin things that are necessarily 
pertinent or useful for her life right now. When I asked her what was missing, she noted that she 
doesn™t pin about the two things she spends the most time actually doing in her life: dance and 
school. She notes, fiI don™t think about it.fl The pins are an escape from her most present reality. 
She went on to say she doesn™t pin a fiuseful boardfl though she seems to realize she might make 
that shift in the future. In contrast with other participants who imagined that in this future reality 
their pinning practices would change, Andrea imagines that her life will change to match the 
pins more closely, fiHopefully, my pins turn into more like what I wear.fl But for now, she sees 
her pins as an ideal depiction of who she would like to be or her dream life. If she had absolute 
control, limitless time and money, this is the life she would choose to live. LauraLaura, at the age of 17, is the oldest of the participants and a senior in high school. Her proximity 
to adulthood offers a unique glimpse because she is pinning not for a more distant dream like 
future, but for a future at hand. Her relationship with her future and dreaming carries different 
tensions with the bulk of her anxieties lying not as much with what her dreams might mean as 
with how to carry them out and also in some ways with how others might view her planning. She 
pins to try and gain knowledge, ideas, and fiplanfl for the adulthood that is nearly here less than a 
year away. She interestingly also had a board entitled fiBeing an Adultfl in which she pins about 
budgeting as seen on the top part of the screen and also about being a wife as seen on the bottom. 
(Figure 7) 40Laura uses her Pinterest to often work out her role as a wife and to plan her wedding. Her fiFuture Weddingfl board had the highest pins with 569. Her next highest board, fiCreate,fl has 
154 with fiBeing an Adultfl a close second at 149. She also indicated in the interview that she had 
an additional hidden wedding board because she did not want people to think she was ficrazy.fl 
This theme of people perceiving her as crazy came up frequently throughout the interview, 
especially in reference to her wedding pins. In contrast to Lisa who considered an audience 
in relationship to the aesthetics of the site, Laura feared her audience might consider her pins 
fiweirdfl for someone her age. When I asked her what someone might learn about her from 
looking at her site, she indicated that fiThey would probably think I was like crazy with like how 
much I post about weddings and stuff and how young I am.fl With her frequent allusions to how 
people might view her, I asked her if she often thought about others when she was pinning. She Figure 7 - Laura™s fiBeing an Adultfl Board41said, fiNot often, but with stuff like that [wedding], I don™t want them to think I am like too far ahead of myself. But I am like such a planner that planning things and thinking about 
things is most of the enjoyment for me, and so like I do things so far in advance. People 
think that is weird and so I don™t want them to think I am weird. The anticipation of 
things is a huge part of my experience with themfl Even though Laura is worried that people might think she is strange for planning ahead, this does 
not actually seem that different from how my other participants use the site. They likewise use 
the site for thinking and dreaming of the future. One of the main differences is that this planning 
seems to intensely focus on marriage and weddings. Thoughts of wedding and being a wife spill 
over into many of her other boards with pins talking about submission and being a good wife. Another key difference in her site from the other participants is that she calls her activity in regards to the future fiplanningfl rather than dreaming. I would argue that this planning is closely 
aligned to my other participant™s ideas of dreaming with the pleasure she derives from it, but she 
calls it planning because it is becoming an actuality. The actuality of this dreaming and planning 
her wedding is perhaps closer at hand than a simple observer of her site might realize. She told 
me that part of the reason for all of the wedding pins was her boyfriend gave her a promise ring, 
which she showed me. A promise ring is a precursor to an engagement ring, but promises that 
there will be an engagement ring soon. She revealed this information to me when I asked what 

board anymore (because she would be married). She thought for a minute about what she might 
pin, and then said, fimaybe I would not be on Pinterest at all then.fl This realization is fascinating 
in relationship to her ideas around planning and how Pinterest is used for dreaming. Perhaps, her 
planning and dreaming have not extended beyond the dominant ideas of wedding and marriage. 
In many ways, this would echo her evangelical upbringing as shown through the examination of 
Ludy™s book. With a woman™s future and life purposes framed around being a wife and having a 42family, most dreaming and planning goes into this actualization. For Laura, this actualization is 
relatively young age in itself. Interestingly, when I asked Laura what story her pins or Pinterest boards might tell, she did not veer into the imaginative or representation as readily as the other participants. Instead, she 
moved to the core of things. The story for her was the undercurrent for all of her pins. She noted, 
fiThat is hard. It would probably tell about some of my anxiety that I have about just like the 
future. Um especially I have a board about being an adult because it like really freaks me out 
cause like I don™t know how to do so many things. Its like I have been catered to by my mom and 
dad, and they do everything for me. Then when I am eighteen, and then they are like ok, bye, I 
just have to know what to do.fl Anxiety acts as an undercurrent for her pinning and her concern about what others think about her. With her future so close, perhaps the reality that these things may not come together exactly 
as how a younger person might simply dream haunts her. One could hear this in her advice to 
other users, fiHave it more for ideas rather than a picture of what you actually want because it 
is probably not going to happen.fl Part of Laura™s anxiety might lie in the fact that she still has 
these dreams of a beautiful wedding and a happy marriage, but she is also coming to realize the 

Primarily, it is impossible because of money as she shows with her frequent budgeting pins and 
mention to her parents putting her on her own at eighteen. The anxiety lies in having to reside 
in the tension of these dreams and cut them and trim them down into attainable packages. Her 
anxiety with others looking might lie in the fact that part of these pins are still holding onto the 
dreaming. She notes that she pins to alleviate anxiety with planning, but many of the pins are 
still images of an idealized wedding and marriage, and those are the ones she is embarrassed by 43as evidenced by her additional hidden board. Perhaps her anxiety speaks to what happens when your childhood dreams of marriage cultivated in your church community and in your belief 
system are near actualization and the reality of those things does not quite match up with the 
dream of them: one continues in the dream and fiplanningfl of them because that is the enjoyment 
of them. HannahHannah uses Pinterest almost daily. She consults it each morning for clothing and hair 

ways. When I asked Hannah what people would know about her or be able to tell about her when 
they look at the site, she said, fiUm, I don™t really know. Just that I am like a normal teenage 
type person.fl She mentioned they would know she likes sports and that she is a Christian from 
her faith board. When I asked her what they might not know, she said they might not know her 
personality because many of the images were not self generated. She selected them, but did 
not create them. In the midst of conversation, she mentions that she at one time had a fiMefl 


thought it was kind of egotistical to have a board of yourself.fl Figure 8 - Hannah™s Quote Board44truly throughout her site, she focused on this idea of identity and self formation. The direct focus on identity formation was seen clearly in the textual analysis of her quote pin board (Figure 8). 

viewed. She had more than double of the use of the word fibefl or fibecomingfl in her quotes, such 
as in the use seen in Figure 8: fi–you decide to be yourself,fl and fiBe somebody.fl In many ways, 
This longing to understand her own story was also expressed at the end of the interview when I asked Hannah if she had any questions for me and she asked, fiWhat have you mostly found 
out?fl She wanted to know what I saw in her boards about her. I told her about some of the 
items I had coded from her quotes as well as some of the different ways I had observed she used 
Pinterest. I directly told her that I noticed she thought about identity a lot. She agreed that yes, 
she does think about identity quite a bit.  When talking about Hannah™s future, her answers are worth noting with how she saw her role alongside her shifting from the dream to the real. When I asked Hannah about what she saw 
fiI will be twenty, so I probably would have stuff about maybe kids, like kid room 
ideas, wedding. I already have my dream wedding board, but like for real wedding. I 
will probably use it more for life instead of pleasure if that makes sense because my 
mom doesn™t like have a humor board or a quotes board. It is all like cooking, cleaning, 
crockpot, and stuff like that.flInstead of  fidreamingfl she would be in college or developing a vocation, which was not 
mentioned in this conversation, she imagines she will be at twenty years old looking at recipes, 
a similar state at twenty as a mid forties stay at home woman. Even though there was a lot of 45When she is 20, instead of using Pinterest as a place for fidreamingfl as in her fidreamfl wedding, 
she will use it for a firealfl wedding. In the same way, her dreaming pins of hair and clothing will 
move to firealfl domestic pins of cooking, cleaning, and crockpot. At twenty, she imagines she 
will be engaged in the serious, real work of life, but that work revolves around the home and the 
domestic. Hannah uses the word dream three times ΠfiDream wardrobe,fl fiDream house,fl and fiMy dream weddingfl on her boards. The idea of dreaming also emerged in other areas of the interview. 
When I asked Hannah what she might tell someone who is just joining Pinterest, she mentioned 
that her mother thought it was a ficult.fl  Her mother was nearby and overheard and said, fiYou 
look at it and you see all these things that you could have and wish you had. You see all these 
other people pinning these dream kitchens and then look at your kitchen. I got tired of seeing 
all of that.fl Her mother equated the power of dreaming with the power of a cult. The dream 
performs a sort of indoctrination. This is reminiscent of the warning from Laura™s small group 
leader that dreaming of the future presents a sort of danger. For the mother, this danger was in 
comparison to her reality and the subsequent pain of disappointment in not measuring up to this 
fidream kitchenfl or dream life. I asked Hannah if she saw it like that. She responded, fiNo I don™t. 
I use it more for enjoyment. I don™t use it for comparing myself with others. It is more like what I 
wish. With my dream wedding, it is not like I am comparing my wedding to other people™s.fl For 
Hannah™s mother, this dream life brings pain Œ strong enough to be compared to a cult. But for 
Hannah, this dreaming is still enjoyable.My personal relationship with Hannah is perhaps stronger than with other participants, so I felt a freedom to ask her more questions and probe more deeply. I asked Hannah directly: What do 
you mean by ‚dream™? She replied, fiIt is kind of a far off thing, but I guess it is not really like 
dream but more like planning. Like future. It is stuff that I would like to have at my wedding. 46It is not stuff that is like a dream that I wont have. But I guess it is like far off– in the future.fl Hannah™s comments are reminiscent of Laura™s with a correlation between dreaming and 
planning. A key difference though is that Laura is starting to come to an adult realization, similar 
to Hannah™s mothers, that this dream might not come true. Hannah™s mother experienced this as 
a forty something woman so profoundly, she said she removed herself from Pinterest for a year 
and compared it to a cult. Laura experiences this pain as well, but possibly terms it anxiety. She 
still holds out some hope that these things may happen, but is coming to grips with the fact that 
they may not. In contrast, Hannah still has hope that she will have access to these dreams. It is 
fistuff that she would like to have–.It is not stuff that is like a dream that I wont have.fl Hannah 
differentiates between the two different kinds of dreaming. There is the kind that is impossible 
or possible. At the same time, Hannah also indicated that at twenty, she would switch from a 
fidream weddingfl board to a fireal wedding board.fl At that time, she will be moving towards 
adult reality of sifting through her dreams and deciding which ones can be real and which ones 
will go by the wayside. Similar to other participants, she imagines this work of the real to be 
fiseriousfl or fiuseful.fl There seems to be an implied correlation between the real, adulthood, 
seriousness, and lack of enjoyment. For now, Hannah is free to dream and enjoy her dreams 
because those dreams are still in the distant future and still imbued with possibility. Rachel
titles. Her boards were artistic and pragmatic. She describes herself in one sentence on the title of 
her page: fiI am a big fan of southern prep [clothing style], good food, quality books, and a whole 
lotta Jesus.fl This description is apt as her pinning practices show her highest consistently pinned 
board was fiClothingfl as well as her fiJesusfl and fiWordsfl board. When I asked Rachel what someone might know about her, she indicated, fiThey would know 47noted they would see her morals in constrast to her mentioning what she notices when she looks at other boards. Early in the interview, she mentioned that she sometimes looks through people™s 
Pinterest to get a sense of who they are. She noted she looked at their clothes to get a sense of 
their style and food to get a sense of their lifestyle. She noted, fiThere is a difference between 
someone who pins salads or cakes and cookies. I don™t know. That tells a lot about a person–If 
you are actually pinning lots of salads, you must be a health nut.fl The boards she looks at when 
she tries to gain a sense of who someone is more closely resemble the boards she frequently pins 
on rather than the fimoralsfl or ones she indicated in the interview as most important to her or 
displaying of who she is. Overall, Rachel does feel like her boards do display her life and offer an accurate picture of her, and this is partially because of her pinning practices. She noted that she fiactually tries to live her 
life by themfl [pins and quotes]. In contrast to pinning an ideal, dream life, Rachel strives to pin 

her pins, and she said, fiIt think it would tell the story of like, it seems like a big word, but like 
my passions in life.fl This is a fascinating contrast and usage of the site. Instead of viewing what 
she pinned as future, distant dreams, she pinned in accordance with her current passions and life. 

instead engaged in the current state of herself and what she is interested in. Similar to other participants, the idea of usefulness surfaced, but uniquely not in contrast to the future, but regarding right now. She joked, fiMy mom teases me a lot about how I pin random 
things and that doesn™t like do anything for you cause like more people use it for DIY ideas, 
more recipes and stuff (italics mine).fl This idea behind her pins not fidoing anything for youfl is 
reminiscent of other participants™ conversations around future usefulness of pins. Her mom in a 
way attempted to call her to the real or more adult useful usages of the site by teasing her about 
her firandomfl pinning. When I asked her why she doesn™t pin things that fido anythingfl or are 48fiuseful,fl she responded, fiJust cause it is kind of fun and a time consumer I guess.fl Her response pushes against that impulse for the real by fully acknowledging the site is for enjoyment. 
From the casualness of her comments, one would imagine that she possibly does not invest a 

and had taken care to style her site in a way similar to Lisa, who was admittedly fiobsessed.fl 
Perhaps, Rachel™s youth manifests itself as a lack of concern about the future or about her life. 
She had a fiWeddingfl and fiXOfl board, the latter of which was consistently pinned pictures of 
couples in various poses, but she does not seem to recognize these things as dreams, but instead 
as passions. Her seeming connection between Pinterest and her current, rather than future, self 
imbued her experience with fifunfl and a sort of freedom to resist the urge or imperative for 
usefulness. JulieJulie is tiny and shy with a soft voice, which can sometimes make her feel more childlike. She is 
a committed student, dancer, and athlete. Her mom and sister are equally diminutive in size, and 
the three of them are frequently together, crafting and cooking. They came up often during my 
interview with Julie, and at times, Pinterest felt like a collaborative activity between the three of 
them with sending pins back and forth and working on cooking meals and creating wall art and 
picture books from Pinterest.  Julie was perhaps one of my most unique participants in that she did not have a hair, makeup, clothing or wedding board. She also seems aware that her Pinterest usage might be different 
than others. In the interview she indicated that most people her age use Pinterest for fidifferent 

how she uses it instead, she said, fiI like to use it for things in the future instead of now I guess.fl 

participants for cooking and crafting. She also uploads her own content with her highest board 49being a fiPicture a Dayfl board, where she uploaded one picture each day for a year. She then Also uniquely, Julie does not appear to consider herself or her identity directly on the site as 
others, such as Hannah, do. In her 365 pictures, there is not a single one of her face. There are 
two that capture a dancing costume she is wearing from the neck down. When asking what 
someone might know or not know about her, she never mentioned her personality as others did 

When I asked what they might not know, she they fiprobably wouldn™t know what sports I dofl in 
contrast to others noting their sense of humor or their personality directly. Even though she might perceive that she uses Pinterest differently than others, the other participants also do use Pinterest to think and dream about the future. Perhaps, with Julie 
using Pinterest in a practical way now, her speaking to fiusing it for futurefl also relates to her 
perception of using it for pleasure vs. purpose. She is using finowfl as a window into different 

Figure 9 - Julie™s Printed Book of her fiPicture a Dayfl Board50hairstyles or clothes, which may be perceived as more shallow purposes. Cooking is practical and meets a need, which could be perceived as adult-like and more future oriented.
Even though she uses the site for the future, Julie noted that observers might not be able to tell 
fiwhat I want to do when I grow up.fl I asked her if she knows what she wants to do, and she 
laughed and replied, finot really.fl I followed up and asked if looking at Pinterest helped her 
to think about what she wants to do, and she said, fiSometimes it does. Like if I am looking 
at pictures of animals, I might want to be a vet, and so, yeah.fl To an outside observer such as 
myself, I might imagine that she wants to do something related to building or designing homes. 
Julie has a fiDream housefl category, which over the course of observing her activity for two 
months was the board she most consistently pinned to. It is her only use of the word fidreamfl out 
of her 33 boards. It is also the board she indicated she would love to have come true, and when 
I asked her what she liked about Pinterest, she noted fiIt gives you ideas for houses and different 


them when she grew up, she said no, that she just wanted to have a house that was for her, 
implying the desire for a home constructed around her desires and interests rather than living in a 
place constructed for someone else. she appears to perceive that she has already tapped into the more adult-like usefulness of the 
site. She does not use it for pleasure and daydreaming and wondering about a story or perception 

my day to day interactions with her, I have observed that she is not as concerned about hair, 
clothing, makeup, or her future marriage. In fact, she never once mentioned marriage throughout 

would use it for organizing in college and fifor a house or saving moneyfl in ten years. Julie uses 
51brings her pleasure. Coincidentally or not, she was also the one participant who did not directly indicate a belief or faith during the study. AndreaAndrea comes from a large family and is homeschooled by her mother. She has a good sense of 
humor and though her jokes and observations are never mean spirited, she is the person whose 
eye contact you would seek across the room for a raised eyebrow and silent chuckle. Even 
though she is not incredibly talkative, she is comfortable around people and has a busy social 
life. When recording Andrea™s interview, an error in the program made it unplayable, so direct 
quotes are not used here. Instead, her ideas are summarized and paraphrased from the notes taken 
during and shortly after the interview.  
 
Andrea uses fidreamfl once in her 28 boards in fimy dream closet,fl and this is the board she also 
indicated she would love to have come true if she could wave a magic wand. Andrea like other 
of my participants seems to recognize the distinction between the dream and real with her current 

said she would probably pin recipe boards because she would not have her mother cooking for 
her anymore. She would also pin wedding boards and hair boards because her older sister would 
not be around for doing her hair. She did not mention college, but instead her comments show 
thoughts of cooking and wedding. She does imagine that there will be some sort of transition 
from others caring for her to her caring for herself. Andrea indicates she will pin boards for use 
even though she currently has hair, wedding, and cooking boards, but they will transition from 
using them for enjoyment to pinning on them for practical, real usage. As indicated prior, Andrea pinned the least frequently out of my participants and seemed to be 
52a possible discomfort. Andrea™s family is much more aware of fithe worldfl and its dangers, 
which is partially why they homeschool. In light of this tension, it was interesting to note the 
pins on her wedding board. Most of the pins are simply images, especially group photos with 
bridesmaids (Figure 10). She noted that she liked to pin photo ideas in her wedding board. This 
stood in contrast to Laura™s board full of articles related on how to save money and be a good 
wife and Rachel™s board that frequently showed images of couples (Figure 11 and 12).   Figure 11- Rachel™s Wedding BoardFigure 10- Andrea™s Wedding Board53    Even though Andrea was reading Ludy™s book Authetic Beauty, her wedding board does not 
seem to indicate a romantic emphasis on a fiprincefl or a fidreamfl wedding. She seems to have 
been able to differentiate between her faith and the ideals behind marriage, even though she still 
imagines she might be engaged rather young, at 19, in wedding planning. Figure 12- Laura™s Wedding Board54CONCLUSIONIronically, Pinterest is a site designed for creating neat categories and sorting images and ideas 
into these tidy boards, but how my participants use the site pushes against easy categorization. 
In this paper, I have attempted to demonstrate the complexities of how my users approach their 
religious beliefs on the site as well as look at how they use the site in relationship to dreaming, 
reality, and future planning. These elements of future and dreaming are important to look at 
with the historical associations between women, religion, sexuality, and reduced educational 
imperatives. There are not easy conclusions to arrive at or predictions to make. This paper is 
full of ‚perhaps.™ Instead, I simply offer a picture of what these young people are doing right 


demonstrate a picture of them. None felt the story of who they are as depicted on Pinterest was 
entirely complete. It is fascinating to see what they dream of when they think the options are somewhat limitless in terms of time and money. They dreamed of weddings, travel, cool clothes, and beautiful homes. 

dreams. Some felt the tensions between their dreams and the real, with the real carrying a closer 
correlation to the possible. Others were young enough to simply enjoy the dreaming and delay 
the anxieties of actualizing these dreams. The idea of the dream is important in relationship to religion for several reasons. First, this relationship highlights where the participants believe limitations may lie and what is possible 
in their futures. In particular, this is important for young religious women with the history of 
reduced educational and vocational expectations and the emphasis on roles of wife and mother. 
These limitations and possibilities were seen in how the participants viewed whether or not 
their dreams could come true and the particular parameters they placed around these dreams in 55relationship to coveting, materialism, or the perceptions of their audience. The examination of how the young women view their potential roles in relationship to religion is important as women™s roles in religious circles are often intertwined with ideas around 
sexual purity as idealized in the Christian faith. As seen in Ludy™s book, the ideal prince or 
marriage is made a dream Πfia dream come true.fl This dream of the ideal husband, wedding, 
and honeymoon is cultivated as a way to control sexuality, but as we saw with Laura, there is 
danger in wanting or ficovetingfl too much. The danger of dreams being too powerful is also 
seen in Hannah™s mothers response to the dream as having a ficultfl like power.  It then becomes 
a balancing act of dreaming of the future to maintain sexuality, but not dreaming too much as to 
cause one to act outside of sexual limits.  Looking at dream and religion together is important in understanding what religious young women are navigating in terms of their education and futures. The sexual purity conversation is 
important as Jonathan Alexander notes, the stories we tell fiabout sexuality are part and parcel, 
even central at times, to the stories we tell about ourselves, individually, collectively, and 
politicallyfl (4). These stories and dreams they tell and move in play a role in how these young 
For myself, my future constructed as wife and mother interfered initially with my education, but 

beginning a PhD program, something my young self could never have fidreamedfl alongside 
those other dreams of being an ideal wife and mother. At times, when those dreams I had been 
brought up to believe were figoodfl or the highest ideal did not come true as I pictured, I grieved. 
On the other side of letting go of those dreams constructed for me, I found a reality that had 
56ideologically constructed, dreams that had so shaped my early years. As educators, it is important to consider the challenges of these students in our classrooms. When presenting on this material, a question came to the forefront in conversation: how do instructors 
helps students coming from religious backgrounds in our classrooms? This question is too large 
to explore here in depth and lends itself to further work in relationship to religion and education, 
but for now, I will offer an abridged and emerging answer. Allowing students to share their 
opinions on topics, especially if controversial, might give religious students the space to work 
out their own individual belief systems in our classrooms.  As noted earlier, Christians are taught 
to be on guard from the world, and this includes our classrooms. If they sense the professor and 
students are adversarial to their belief systems, in many ways, they may withdraw and take on a 
defensive approach inside themselves. Allowing them to speak and accepting their belief systems 

venture that same consideration, understanding, and engagement with other differing viewpoints. 
Creating a culture of listening in the classroom helps every student, especially those with unique 
backgrounds. In my classroom, I also allow students to write about their religion if they chose to do so for 
rather than abstract ideas or beliefs. I tell them I will not take points off if I disagree with their 
argument or topic, in the same way I would not for a student arguing against gun control or 
other controversial topics, but they need to work with thoughtful reasoning and with nuanced 
arguments, considering both sides. I also ask, as I do all students, that they enter into their 
writing with real, honest questions to explore. Without well-formed questions and a movement 
into what makes them curious, their papers could potentially veer into empty, canned rhetoric 
and not bear the mark of their own unique thinking and wording.  57In the same way educators are aware that classrooms are not neutral spaces and students bring their own unique cultures and backgrounds to the educational experience, Pinterest and digital 
spaces are not neutral. This work demonstrates the need for contextualizing what users bring to 

contentious Πnot in terms of usability per se Πbut in terms of morality, ethics, and ideologies? 
These tensions were seen in the teachings around the world, how some of the participants 
monitoring their usage, and in the book iparent. The examination of how culture and religious 
ideologies impact digital spaces warrants further research and consideration. Another aspect of this study that warrants further consideration is the role of purity teachings in development of sexuality and gender. Looking closely at them and noting fihowfl they control, 
and how these methods of control Πfear, unrealistic idealization Πalso relate to broader societal 
issues and the movement of women into the public sphere and places of leadership is important. 
Also, many of these teachings ignore discussions around gender identity in relationship to 
LGBTQ identities or the role different ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds might play in 
negotiating sexual or life ideals. I also see parallels between the methods of control used by purity teachings and the fear 
to immigration and the injustices in the legal system against minority peoples. The same fear 
mindset used to control sexuality is used to stereotype or discriminate against people based on 
fear. Historically, with our society and political system built in close relationship to Christian 
religious ideals, further exploration is needed into how the rhetoric of religion is directly and 
indirectly used today in our political system. My participants™ dreams and realities will most likely shift and change throughout their life. Some of their early dreams might be achieved and found lacking. Others might be let go of only 58strong they are worth pushing against religious parameters they grew up with in order to achieve 
them. None of us can know. Certainly, through this study, we have the honor of catching a 
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