From the Sidelines to the Centre: Rethinking Public Space for Teenage Girls
- Bluestone Planning
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
Urban design often claims to serve everyone yet, in practice, many of our public spaces quietly exclude half the population. Perkins & Will’s 2024 study, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, asks a simple but powerful question: how do teenage girls experience the built environment and what would it look like to design with them in mind?
How Girls Experience Space Differently
Research shows that girls and boys perceive and use public spaces in different ways. While boys often roam further from home, gravitating toward outdoor sports and activities without close supervision, girls tend to stay closer to home or indoors (Edwards et al., 2001).
This difference becomes particularly visible in parks. Around the world, many parks feature Multi-Use Games Areas (MUGAs) - flexible pitches or courts designed for team sports like football, basketball or tennis. Sports that are in practice dominated by boys.
This is reinforced by a UK study by Make Space for Girls, which observed just 5 girls using an MUGA compared with 55 boys (Barker et al., 2022). Other research identifies another trend: boys not only occupy these spaces more but they also take up to ten times more physical space than girls, pushing them to the periphery of parks (Edwards et al., 2001).
All of this turns centralised fields into a fishbowl, creating spaces where girls feel watched rather than welcomed. Research shows that this dynamic further marginalises girls, who often respond to increased attention by retreating to the edges or avoiding the park altogether.
What Girls Value in Public Spaces
When we look beyond sports facilities, a different picture emerges. Studies across Europe show that teenage girls consistently value:
Maintenance and Safety: clean, well-lit and cared-for spaces (Mertens et al., 2019).
Aesthetics and Atmosphere: greenery, colour, historical character and natural features (Van Hecke et al., 2016).
Quiet Zones: places to relax, reflect or connect with friends.
Prospect Refuges: alcoves or smaller spaces where they can observe their surroundings without being overly visible (Owens).
Girls also tend to use a wider variety of facilities than boys, from swings to water features, basketball courts and playgrounds. But their choices are heavily shaped by perceptions of safety: poor lighting, secluded areas or heavy traffic can quickly turn a space into a no-go zone.
Implications for Design
The report lays out clear opportunities for reimagining public space so it works better for teenage girls and, by extension, for everyone:
Colour and Aesthetics Matter: incorporate greenery, art and playful design.
Spaces for Socialising: create plenty of seating and gathering areas.
Beyond Sports: provide for different types of play, not just competitive games.
Freedom and Privacy: design spaces where teens can be themselves, away from the constant gaze of adults or peers.
Safety First: ensure lighting, visibility and maintenance support a sense of security.
Flexible, Interactive Spaces: allow teens to adapt spaces to their own needs.
Small, Diverse Zones: break up large areas into smaller pockets with a mix of activities.
Cluster Activities: locate different play types together so teens can easily move between them.
Why It Matters
Design is never neutral. When our parks and public spaces default to football pitches and basketball courts, they send a message that privileges boys’ play while sidelining girls.
As Perkins & Will’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun report reminds us: when we ignore who our cities are designed for, and who they are not, we perpetuate structures of exclusion and inequality. This shapes how girls perceive space and, in turn, how they participate in society.
Rethinking urban design through the lens of teenage girls isn’t just about fairness. It is about creating richer, safer and more welcoming places for everyone.
--
Urban design that better reflects the experiences of teenage girls has the potential to create safer, more inclusive and more vibrant places for all. As the evidence shows, small changes in design priorities can make a big difference in how communities use and value their public spaces.
At Bluestone Planning, we recognise how insights like these can inform wider planning and development strategies. Whether you are shaping a new park, enhancing existing public spaces or promoting larger regeneration schemes, understanding how design choices affect inclusivity is key to delivering lasting value.
Get in touch with us using the details below to discuss how our expertise can support your project.
📞 +44 1235 766825
Comments