Following the lives of 3 teen moms, The Girls Who Grew Big shows us the readers that family really are chosen. Interweaving narratives and connections, The Girls showcases how much community, especially for moms, is so important. This was dramatic, powerful and my book club's pick for next month (due to my persistent nudging)!

Impactful coming of age story that follows three women as they navigate their lives as teenage mothers. Leila Mottley beautifully wrote a character driven story, with three distinctively written POVs. This is a story of sisterhood, found family, and women supporting women, despite the messy parts of life and conflicts that arise. Leila didn't shy away from tough topics in this book. I highly recommend this book.

Thankyou NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the arc. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.5

The Girls Who Grew Big is the sophomore novel from Leila Mottley. She is a powerhouse writer and really knows how to construct well-written character driven novels. This novel is told from the POV of three young women living in a small coastal Florida town. Two of them are teen moms and another is a teen expecting her first child. It explores classism, racism, romantic relationships, and friendships. Throughout all the hardships these three women who through in the end they have each other and the family they've made that surrounds them. I loved seeing the growth of all three women across the narrative presented.

I'm in awe of Mottley's writing ability. I thought she was great with her debut, Nightcrawling, and she has only gotten better. At only 23, she is bound to be a literary voice for decades to come.

Thank you to Knopf for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

This book was deeply impactful.

It hits you from the beginning with the opening chapter and the birth of one of the main character's- Simone- twins. That scene grabs your attention and the rest of the story ebbs and flows easily thereafter.

The story is set in a small Florida beach town that feels like it’s been left behind—just like the girls at the heart of this book. We follow three teenagers, each on their own path through motherhood:

✨ Simone has twin five-year-olds and has already lost her family because she chose to keep them. Instead of shutting down, she creates space for others—offering support, advice, and rides in the back of her red truck.
✨ Emory is a brand-new mom, juggling her baby, school, a complicated home life, and dreams of studying marine biology far away.
✨ Adela is still pregnant, trying to keep everything looking perfect and understand who she is at her core while her world quietly falls apart (often due to her own decisions).

Each girl is at a different point in her journey, but they all share one thing: they’re trying to figure it out with very little help. Despite arguments and growing pains, they leaned on one another in ways no one else could understand.

This book doesn’t shy away from hard things. It looks directly at poverty, racism, teen pregnancy, and the huge gap in support for young moms. It never feels preachy or forced; these issues show up naturally in the characters’ lives, and you feel their weight without the author having to spell it out.

There were moments that shocked me and others that broke my heart. I wanted to reach into the pages and help these girls make better choices or protect them from what was coming. But that’s part of what made the book so real—it shows teens doing their best in impossible situations, trying to care for themselves and their kids when the world doesn’t seem to care back.

Leila Mottley’s writing is something special. It’s emotional without being dramatic, thoughtful without being overdone. Every line feels like it matters. She gives you space to feel everything.

This is a story about motherhood, yes—but more than that, it’s about community, survival, and finding your people when everything else falls apart. It’s about girls who “grow big” not just because they’re becoming moms, but because they’re learning to take up space in a world that wants them to shrink.

Huge thanks to @netgalley and @aaknopf for the ARC. This one will stay with me for a long time.

The girls of this book are women learning so young how to bear the weight of other people’s choices, not just their own, and to meet the needs of their children. They’re also learning how to be themselves under their fear and ferocious love for their babies. It’s hard and beautiful to read - one of those books that makes you want to read everything else the author has written.

The author makes so vivid how leveling and unifying motherhood is, yet somehow also divisive and rife with judgment. It’s a common denominator for so many women and makes you want to - think you CAN - “pull a world that was good to them from the depths of its horrors.”

Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for the advance copy @leilamottley‘s beautiful book!

Thoughts

This was such a great book. From the very first pages I was hooked and thinking of people I need to buy this book for.

Every girls story was engaging and kept you turning the pages to find out more. You just want to see how their story would end. I think it is a pretty accurate representation of SOME of the different types of teen moms.

I liked how she showed how girls are treated differently from boys when they have kids as teenagers.

It is a story I'll be talking about for a while for sure and recommending.

Thanks for Netgalley and Knopf for this eARC.

I loved everything about this book start to finish. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book quite like this one and it was fantastic, impactful and so beautifully and meticulously written. Every line was laced in metaphor.
The book follows three girls, all tied together by one thing. Each is a teen mom from the Florida panhandle. Adela, newly pregnant and forced to move in with her grandmother until she gives birth; Emory, brand new mom determined to make it through her senior year with a baby on her hip so she can study marine biology anywhere but here; and Simone, seasoned mom of twin five year olds who takes in and guides all the Girls as they navigate the intricacies of motherhood in the bed of her red truck.
It’s hard to put birth and motherhood into words that impact and I think Mottley did a fantastic job doing just that in this novel. Not one word was wasted, not one scenario or situation was unnecessary. I don’t think anyone, unless in that position, can understand what it’s like to be a teen mom living like these girls, but this opened my eyes to it a little more than they were and that’s what makes this novel so great.
Thank you to @netgalley @aaknopf @knopfcooks @pantheonbooks and @ireadvintage for this Advanced Reader Copy

This book was much better than I anticipated. It tells the story of teen mothers in a small beach town in Florida, not the kind of beach town we usually imagine. These young women have to figure out how to survive on their own after becoming moms. A new pregnant teen is introduced to the group and this book tells the story of her time in the town with these girls, sent there by her parents to live with her grandmother during the pregnancy. She learns from and teaches the other moms a lot in the process. This is a book for both young and older women to read, whether we can or can’t relate to the characters. There is something in each of them that will remind of us ourselves in some way. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this title.

Spectacular! Mothers everywhere should read this story and women who may or may not want to be mothers just to realize you can put yourself first and still love your child.

In The Girls Who Grew Big, Leila Mottley bears witness to the tender growing pains of young mothers coming of age. When 16-year-old Adela falls pregnant, her parents shun her and send her from her home in Indiana to stay with her grandmother Padua Beach, Florida. Upon arriving in Padua, she stumbles upon the Girls, a group of other young mothers who have banded together out of circumstance. The book follows Adela’s pregnancy, and is told from the perspective of Adela and two of the other girls, Simone, and Emory. Driven by the emotional depths of the characters and supported by the lush Florida landscape, Mottley fosters great empathy among readers as they follow the journeys of the Girls. This story will resonate with readers who appreciate quiet, character-driven narratives.

Beautifully written story of young mothers living in a small town in Florida. Parts of this story broke my heart, while others were so hopeful and raw. Definitely check trigger warnings, there was so much, I couldn’t put it down and found myself rooting for the girls as they navigated their lives and future.

I don't know why but I thought this book might be boring. Then I read the first paragraph: "Nobody ever warns you about the placenta. Like, you spend days seizing and stretching open to get some shoulders out your coochie and then the baby, or babies in my case, are writhing in your arms and you realize it's not even over. You've still gotta push out this pulsing purple heart bigger than your man's head - and my man has a big-ass head - and find a way to cut the cords."
So, yeah. Definitely would not say boring. This author is very talented, as evidenced in her last book. She is great at being gritty and real.

I approached The Girls Who Grew Big with excitement and high expectations, hoping for an exploration of teenage motherhood that would illuminate the genuine struggles, fears, resilience and growth that a young mother experiences. Unfortunately, the book fell short of this promise. The premise suggested an examination of young motherhood in a story of several young mothers, but instead the characters are presented as one-dimensional figures whose priorities seem to revolve around partying and their sexual relationships rather than the profound responsibility of caring for a child.

Leila Mottley is a phenomenal writer. Let’s start there!

The Girls Who Grew Big is a beautiful exploration of the intersection of girlhood and motherhood, friendship, love, belonging and becoming.

I loved this story and was immediately hooked. This was such a beautiful story of 3 young women. Adela is 16 and pregnant and has been banished to live with her grandmother in Padua Beach Florida. Simone is 20 and the mother of 4 year old twins and finds herself pregnant again. Emory is so determined to graduate that she brings her infant son Kai to school.

The sisterhood and bond among these girls was BEAUTIFUL 🥹! I loved the support they offered each other. Simone teaching Emory to nurse her son was so beautiful. The love these girls offered each other after being treated so harshly by the people who should have embraced them was so endearing.

I would highly recommend this book! Also recommend her first book Nightcrawling if you haven’t read that! Her writing is captivating!

Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

The Girls Who Grew Big is a coming of age story set in the small Florida beach town of Padua, where many young girls become mothers early in life.

At 16, Simone becomes pregnant with twins by her much older boyfriend Tooth. Rather than retreating into shame or silence, she forms a club for other teen moms, creating a tight knit community where the girls care for one another like family.

Everything shifts when a new girl named Adela arrives in town. Sent to live with her grandmother as punishment for becoming pregnant, Adela carries herself with a sense of ambition. Once a high school swim star, she believes she’s meant for something more. Though she eventually bonds with the girls in Simone’s group, tension sparks between her and Simone right away. Their relationship becomes even more complicated when an unexpected connection brings their lives crashing together.

I found this story deeply compelling. It challenges the idea that teenage motherhood marks the end of a young girl’s future. These characters show that young moms can still grow, lead, and carry wisdom many adults never achieve. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read it!

This book follows three girls living in the FL panhandle in various stages of teen pregnancy- Adela is an aspiring Olympic swimmer sent here to her grandmother's to serve out her pregnancy. Emory dreams of graduating and going off to college, but has a 9-month old with a guy who loves her, but her grandparents won't allow him to the house because he is black and she is white. And Simone had twins at 15 and is now the mama of the Girls- all the local pregnant teens and teen moms who are just looking for love and safety.

What a sad, but beautiful story. When I saw Mottley had a second book coming I jumped at the chance to read it.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed reading the raw and gritty novel, Nightcrawling and am so grateful to have been gifted an early digital copy of her second novel.

This novel follows the lives of teen girls who find themselves pregnant and forgotten by the world. It starts with 16 yr old Adela, a competitive swimmer aiming for the Olympics, who finds herself pregnant. She is sent off to live with her grandmother in Florida’s panhandle until after she has the baby so as not to disgrace her family. There she meets Emory who has a baby with Jayden. Jayden’s sister, Simone, is kind of a ringleader for a group of teenage mothers. Simone lives in her truck and raises her twins but also brings together these other young mothers as they help each other out. But they are still girls themselves, with hopes, desires betrayals, jealousies and hurts. This is a coming of age story of found sisterhood, a disjointed childhood and early motherhood.

Leila Mottley has a way of telling a story that is remarkable. This book isn’t as raw and gritty as her previous one but it is emotional just the same. There are highs and lows and triumphs and failures as these girls help each other navigate their unpredictable new lives with the babies they love so deeply. Brimming with heart and resilience and always hope, this was a fantastic read.

Thank you to @aaknopf @pantheonbooks @vintageanchorbooks @netgalley for a #gifted digital copy of this novel

Thank you NetGalley, Knopf, and the author for ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available now!

This is a literary, coming-of-age book told from the first person from Simone, Emory, and Adela’s perspectives.

I loved the three of them and seeing their journey across the three trimesters. I loved seeing their sisterhood, and the community Simone built for other young mothers, despite the judgement she endured for having her twins at sixteen, and the cautionary tale she became for those in her town.

I loved how they had moments of contention along with moments of connection. Because when it came to being a mother, forced out the house, alone in some situations, or struggling to connect with their kids or anyone, only the other Girls could understand and were willing to help.

The writing of this book hooked me from the first page. It was poetic and raw and early on I knew this book was going to be one of my favorites of the year.

This book takes serious topics- poverty, abortion, motherhood, abandonment, age-gap, adult/child relationships, the double standard of being the one pregnant vs. the one getting someone pregnant and more – and packages them in a way that can cause conversation without speaking on it directly. The topics are not theories being discussed, but shown apart of these girls everyday lives.

This author does a great job of showing, instead of telling, and allowing readers to form conclusions about what they’re reading, though it’s clear how messed up some of the situations were.

Read for:

🍼 Teen moms

🍼 Sisterhood

🍼 Coming-of-age

🍼 3 POVs

🍼 Different, but alike characters

🍼 Real and raw depictions

OVERALL

Overall, I give this a 5 out of 5 stars. This book will be on my mind for a long time. Though the mothers here are young, I think there’s great depictions of motherhood in general alongside the intersectionality of it. Each girl had their own journey and I was invested in it all.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC.

Plot: This story follows three teen moms in Florida, navigating motherhood while also coming of age. Each girl has a distinct voice and story, facing different issues relating to race, sexual identity, poverty, lack of support, trauma, love, and friendship.

Review: This was so well done. I connected with each girl, and I felt their pain and joy. The book causes you to think deeply about many themes and issues. Most importantly, I think we forget sometimes that teen moms are more than just moms… they have dreams, hobbies, and needs. I loved how the story ended - it felt like we got a brief glimpse into these girls’ lives, and their futures are open.

4⭐️

I loved reading The Girls Who Grew Big. A group of teenagers, some mothers, one pregnant. Made me rethink my assumptions about young motherhood.