A questionnaire consisting of 41 items was used to collect demographic information and self-reports on exposure to violence, fear of violence, and positive things going on in the lives of the teenage girls. In addition, the questionnaire contained two scales to collect data on hopeless and anger. Exposure to violence was determined by self-reported answers to items on the questionnaire, such as whether the teenage girls had been physically and/or sexually abused, whether any close relative or friend had been killed by violence, and whether the teenage girls had themselves attacked or hurt anyone. All subjects participated in brief focus groups upon completion of the questionnaire, and information from the focus groups provided a context for the empirical data. Overall, results indicated that the teenage girls were hopeful. Correlation and regression procedures revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between hopefulness and exposure to violence. No significant relationship was found between anger and hopefulness. Fear of violence was positively related to exposure to violence but did not appear to be related to anger or hopefulness. Findings were mixed and did not capture the kind of hopelessness and anger that often appear in the literature describing children growing up in urban environments. Through the use of focus groups, the teenage girls provided contextual information indicating many of them shared the values of mainstream society in terms of their future aspirations. Implications of the findings for working with black teenage girls are discussed. 57 references and 3 tables