Secret Sharing: Debutantes Coming Out in the American South

''There''s no choosing. It isn''t choice. Are you the daughter of somebody who was somebody who was somebody? And if you are, and you''re not a heroin addict, you are there.''"

This article appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.

Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill''s Center for the Study of the American South.