In Make Lemonade, 17-year-old Jolly is the main protagonist. Set in a predominantly African-American urban area, one of the points the book discusses is how where you live can affect your life. Jolly has many draining emotional issues; she has two children from two absent fathers, she has no parents, she lost a job where she was sexually harassed, and she is very low income. Jolly was initially depicted as independent for explaining her predicament of living alone with two young children; however, when 14-year-old LaVaughn started babysitting for Jolly's children, Jilly and Jeremy, her unreliability started to reach the surface. Jolly fails to return home on time and pay LaVaughn, yet Jolly does not accept LaVaughn's request to accept Welfare.
