The objective of this exploratory study with a qualitative approach was to analyze how adolescents perceive reality in terms of vulnerability in respect to health. A total of 17 semi-structured interviews were staged with adolescents from two elementary-middle (k-8) schools in a city in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil. Content analysis was used to interpret the data, from which three thematic nuclei emerged. The results revealed that the adolescents understand the complex interaction between individual predisposition and health vulnerability, as well as the issues related to social structure, which contributes to strengthening the concept of vulnerability based on individual, social and programmatic logic. It was established that public policies, prevention and care provided during adolescence should not be guided by a single reference point, but instead by the plurality of the adolescent individuals concerning vulnerability in their dimensions, which should be acknowledged in order to break with the idea of the universality of the process of becoming an adolescent.