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Enactment of adult roles such as parenthood, marriage, and employment has been tied to desistance (the slowing down or cessation of offending behavior) but little is known about how incarcerated women conceptualize these roles in the first place. Drawing on 35 in-depth interviews with incarcerated women, supplemented by mail correspondence with a sub-sample of these women, I explore how incarcerated women interpret their early life-course experiences when reflecting on their transition to adulthood and, subsequently, their views on adult roles and responsibilities. The women’s narratives indicate that early experiences with trauma, along with premature entries into adult roles, result in a difficult transition to adulthood. I argue that women’s accelerated transitions to adulthood shape their views on adult roles, pointing to a need to incorporate discussions of age-normative timetables in efforts to assist at-risk and incarcerated women.