Karen is a fourteen year old punk rocker growing up in 1980s Southern California. Her conservative parents drive over a thousand miles to place her in an institution they have never seen. While locked up, Karen writes the story of her young life; kissing a boy at age ten, being hit by him hours later. She has clinical depression at age eleven, lost her virginity at twelve, never trusting her parents to tell them any of it. Karen's beautiful sexual friend, Tammy, shoplifts and manipulates people for fun. Jack, Karen's charismatic and deviant boyfriend, engages in self-harm, takes drugs, and eventually lashes out at Karen physically. When her parents discover she is pregnant at fourteen, they attempt to isolate and control her, but after experiencing more violence, this time by her family, Karen runs away. On the street Karen sells drugs, destroys public property and eventually gets kicked out of school. Torn between the freedom of the street and the comfort of a home, Karen finds Deborah, a 25 year old willing to let her live in her beach front apartment. While arrangements are being made for Karen to forge a new life, her parents regain custody, almost through force. As a family, they attend counseling with Serena Dank, Karen eventually becoming a poster child for the infamous "Parents of Punkers".Growing Wild chronicles a teenager being locked against her will, the events that led her there, and the person she had to become to find freedom.