2022-04-192022-04-192021https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/12107This study uses psychology, philosophy, sociology, and pedagogy to explore the ways in which spaces, both “real” and imagined, influence young writers’ creative processes. Arts - based methods were applied in conscious opposition to traditional “banking” models of education, priortising the different truths and ways of knowing accepted in phenomenology. Through a thematic and arts-based analysis of a focus group, surveys, and creative writing pieces from 826 Boston’s Youth Literaary Advisory Board, themes of comfort, individuality and dis/embodiment, community, and contrasts were generated. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for researchers and arts managers interested in the creative processes of teen writers.