The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship, from an intertextual perspective, between Las travesuras de la niña mala by Mario Vargas Llosa (2006), and the picaresque genre developed in Spain during the 16th and 17th century. In order to achieve this aim, I will take into account the filiation discourse and the appearance of the picaresque canon, as well as the female picaresque works ignored by the critics. Vargas Llosa draws the character of the "niña mala" gathering charateristics which belong both to male and female picaro.