There’s a special kind of magic in finishing a book that leaves you both elated and gutted—because you know you’ve just experienced something extraordinary. The Girls Who Grew Big is that kind of book.

Leila Mottley’s talent is astonishing. Her writing is lyrical, layered, and emotionally resonant, and her characters feel so real they linger with you long after the final page. I’m in awe of what she’s accomplished at such a young age—and I’m committed to reading everything she writes from here on out.

Set in a forgotten beach town in Florida, this novel follows a group of teen mothers navigating poverty, isolation, and impossible choices. It’s a story about choosing motherhood—or not—and about claiming space, growing big, and dreaming beyond the limits the world sets. These young women shine with strength and quiet rebellion, and their resilience will stay with you.

If you’re drawn to books that tackle real, difficult issues with grace and poetic power, this one is a must-read.

Thank you for the advanced copy of The Girls Who Grew Big! I loved reading about all the different girls and their journey through teen pregnancy and motherhood. As someone who recently gave birth for a 2nd time, I was sad to see how they were treated. I enjoyed the diverse and realistic experiences they all faced. The story of their friendships was very well written and how they stuck beside each other and supported when nearly no one else would. But that didn’t mean the friendships were perfect. This was a good read. Thank you again for the arc!

I could not get into this one, unfortunately. In a time when I was in between a lot of books, there was not anything pulling me to read. But kudos to the author and publishing group - I am honored to receive the copy!

I’m not usually the biggest fan of character driven novels, but this book proved that when one is well written, I can’t put it down.

The Girls Who Grew Big follows 3 POVs. Simone, a teen mom of 4 year old twins who is doing her best despite her circumstances. She becomes a mother hen, if you will, to other girls in Padua Beach, FL that wind up pregnant and not knowing what to do. She’s made her mistakes, but when her girls and kids need her, she’s there. Emory is a new teen mom who has just had her baby. Her baby’s father is Simone’s brother, so she quickly becomes a part of the girls. Emory is different though. She doesn’t accept that being pregnant young means she has to put her dreams on hold, and she’s willing to prove everyone wrong. Adela has just gotten pregnant and is shipped off by her parents to Padua Beach to “take care of it.” Adela believes that once this baby comes, her life will go back to how it was. I can’t go much more into her character without dipping into some spoiler territory. All three of these girls’ lives intertwine as the story progresses their stories are both tragic and hopeful.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’n het second book, Motley brings together a cast of teenage moms that reveals a breadth of life experience and situations many people never think about. Each of these girls is unique and finds herself pregnant for very different reasons. They are all rejected by varying degrees by society and come together to support one another in a really beautiful and necessary way. Motley demonstrates an understanding and humanity that belies her age. She makes strong statements about taking the time to understand someone rather than judging them. My only complaint is that it swerves a bit too close to preachy for my taste, but overall it’s a superb book.

Every now and then we are gifted with a poignant, soul-baring story written by an author with incredible voice. The Girls Who Grew Big is that book, and Leila Mottley is that author. From the very first sentences, I knew that this novel was going to be something special.

Set in the fictional town of Padua Beach, Florida, The Girls Who Grew Big follows a group of pregnant teenage girls as they navigate not only their burgeoning coming of age, but also friendship, romantic relationships, growing responsibility, and motherhood.

Simone, the group’s ringleader, gave birth to twins in the back of her boyfriend’s truck, where they now live after her parents kicked her out upon learning that she was pregnant. Said boyfriend can’t commit to anything more than a minute here or there with his kids and casual hook-ups with Simone, so when she learns that she is pregnant again, she becomes desperate.

Emory, the group’s only white girl, is brought into the fold after having a baby with Simone’s brother. One of the most promising students at her high school, Emory is determined to not let anything stand in her way of following her dreams - which is why she demands that her school allow her to bring her son to class. However, with the grandparents who raised her not supportive of her mixed race relationship or baby, can Emory find the footing she needs to graduate and embark on the life she has always dreamed of?

Adela a champion swimmer who grew up in the Midwest, the daughter of a white mother and black father, finds herself in Padua Beach after falling pregnant. Her parents don’t want her chances of swimming competitively to be dashed, so they send her away to have her baby in secret. What they don’t know is that Adela’s time in Padua Beach living with her supportive grandmother will change her in ways she never imagined. How can she return to her old life the same girl she was before when so much is different?

As Adela’s life is rapidly changing, she, in fact, becomes the catalyst that rocks the group of young mothers to their core. Boundaries are tested and lines are crossed as the girls become more entangled over the course of Adela’s pregnancy. Just who do we owe our loyalties to - our friends? Family? Partners? Children? Or perhaps, just maybe, ourselves?

When you read Leila Mottley’s The Girls Who Grew Big, you know that you are holding something raw and real in your hands. Mottley’s characters are vivid, whole people who leap off the page with everything they feel, hope, and dream about their lives and fates. Mottley rips the faux veneer off of everything that is sugar-coated or glossed over in life and exposes it for how it is, while at the same time, showing people for who they really are.

This story of a group of girls who found each other through circumstance when no one else wanted them is a truthful, yet touching story of what it means to be both a girl and a mother in a world that holds firmly onto the belief that those who make their beds must lie in them. Readers who don’t flinch at the ugly, unyielding corners of society will find much to ponder in this thought-provoking book.

This story is going to stick with me for a long time. It did what a good book is meant to do, it put me in the shoes of people I have nothing in common with and made me feel empathy and connection to them. It made me think deeper and understand some of the nuance in surviving as a teen mother, especially in poor communities. The prose is so poetic and listening to the audio took it to whole other level. I loved it.

@aaknopf | #gifted I became a huge fan of Leila Mottley after reading her wonderful debut, 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨. As is usually the case with me, that also made me feel a little nervous toward her sophomore novel. I’m happy to report that I needn’t have worried. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗪 𝗕𝗜𝗚 is every bit as good as her first. It’s raw, gritty, sad, compelling, heartfelt, and in so many ways beautiful.⁣
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This is the story of a group of teenage mothers living in a small beach town on Florida’s panhandle. These are girls who are existing largely on their own with children in tow and little else besides each other. These young women have made their own little community. With each other they’re allowed to share their days, their problems, heartaches, and love for their children. They understand like no one else can. These girls are fiercely loyal, holding a sort of unspoken code of honor between them.⁣
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As with Mottley’s first book, parts of this story will make many readers very uncomfortable, even cringe, but those parts will also stay with you for a very long time. The opening chapter might be called harrowing, but I’ll never forget it and the rest of the story rests on its shoulders. Now don’t let this scare you away. As I mentioned, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘉𝘪𝘨 is truly a beautiful story, continually balancing distress with hope, uncertainty with joy. Above all it speaks to the power of a tribe of women. Leila Mottley, still so young, truly knows how to tell a story and I look forward to many, many years of reading her words. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you Netgalley for an arc in exchange for honest review.

Ah this was a doozy. Watching young girls trying to navigate motherhood alone while being judged by their peers. Somehow their strength to keep pushing when it be easier to give up. It’s frustrating to see that even though it takes two to make a baby the girls were always seen as the issue. It’s their fault they got pregnant, they deserve 0 help while the men around them got to skate free. Teeth was awful pervert and I wish more had happened to him. I did find some parts to be a bit disarray but overall I enjoyed the story and I can’t wait to read Leila next novel!

The Girls Who Grew Big is the beautifully-crafted and extremely thought-provoking second novel by the acclaimed young author Leah Mottley. It is undoubtedly one of the best books I will read this year, and I plan to re-read it. It's that good. Thank you very much to the Publisher and NetGalley for gracing me with an ARC to read and review.

This is a book that I believe will hit every reader differently. On first glance, it's a fairly straightforward story about three teens ("the Girls" -- Simone, Emory and Adela) dealing with pregnancy and motherhood under very adverse circumstances and bonding over their shared struggles. The story is told from each young woman's viewpoint, in alternating chapters. Mottley's ability to create and interweave these three unique voices into one cohesive and very powerful narrative is stunning.

What struck me so profoundly throughout the book is that the Girls' physical and emotional struggles and misery, and their children's well-being, would have been infinitely improved if the Girls had not been abandoned by their families and forced to deal with pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing alone. Only one adult is a hero in this book: Adela's grandmother Noni, who invites Adela to stay with her and provides much needed emotional support. Otherwise, every parental figure in this book drops the ball, big time. Yes, the Girls' story is ultimately uplifting, as they become stronger by helping each other, and learn to survive and perhaps even thrive without family support of any kind. But I finished the book feeling angry that they had to endure so much hardship, so needlessly.

The girls who grew big follows a group of teenage girls and their journey through pregnancy. You are able to get a glimpse of their life and hardships. Their relationships with themselves, their partners, their friends, and their family around them.

I really enjoyed Nightcrawling, so I was excited to see what Mottley would do next. The Girls Who Grew Big is a solid follow-up that shows how much better Mottley has gotten at controlling her prose. Nightcrawling was beautiful but sometimes got a little purple. Here, she's learned when to lean into gorgeous writing and when to just tell the story. It feels more balanced.
The Florida setting works well. These girls hanging out in the back of Simone's red truck, dealing with a town that judges them. Mottley creates a world where young mothers find community with each other, which I found moving.
I did have some frustrations…the men in this story barely exist as real people. They show up long enough to get these girls pregnant, then just... disappear. And even after having babies, some of these girls seem genuinely surprised about how pregnancy works.
And PawPaw as a character is truly awful. Every scene with him made me angry. Mottley writes him with such unflinching cruelty and malice that his evil feels very real.
Overall, I liked the book. It's not quite as powerful as Nightcrawling for me. This feels more careful and controlled, which shows technical growth but maybe loses some emotional punch.
The critical reception has been really positive and I am happy for Leila. She writes these young women without judgment and doesn't offer simple solutions to complex problems. She's clearly a talented writer who's still developing her voice.
The Girls Who Grew Big is good work from someone I'm definitely going to keep reading.

Adelaide, Emory, Simone and the rest of the group of young mothers face different challenges in motherhood. They are met with unsupportive families, struggles through school, predators and navigating being young mothers.
This was a beautiful story about finding out who you really are while others are trying to tell your story. Do you let the naysayers win?

Mottley’s prose is smart and literary, and each of the characters bears a distinct voice. I wouldn’t say that Simone, Emory, and Adela are likable; in fact, at times, they’re each quite unlikeable and make terrible choices. Ultimately though, these characters come to life on the page, and this is a story about three girls becoming mothers. Something about it all felt nostalgic, too. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the fact that Mottley is only 23 and writing at this level. Remarkable.

4.5 Stars

Strong Start with Simone having a baby in the back of her Red Pick-Up Truck. Strong Writing. I really was moved by these characters. This one is about young girls learning to be women and mothers. They lean on each other and the change is profound. They demand to be seen, to try, to figure out the extremely difficult task of being a mother, and to begin to step into themselves. They win whether you feel like judging them or not. They deserve this as those who should help them for the most part don’t. Beautiful, but unapologetic writing. Leila Mottley is a Force to be Reckoned With and Her Writing Sits with you for a Long Time. Read This One.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for a copy of this book. I write reviews for all books I read

Adela, Simone and Emory are young unmarried women and they still have hopes for their futures but are not sure how they’re going to accomplish it now that they find themselves either pregnant or with young children. Living in the Florida panhandle, they form themselves a little group to support each other and call themselves the Girls.
Each of the characters have their own journey and their firsthand look at teenager pregnancy and motherhood and all the problems they face and the family they find in each other.
There’s a lot of flows words amd there’s a scene with an orca whale that is quite moving and you’ll find yourself rooting for each of the girls at various stages of the story because of the way the author writes them.
Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

"We didn't get to make no different choices. That was motherhood" - Simone, one of Leila Mottley's young mothers in The Girls Who Grew Big.

Mottley brings her razor sharp insight to the Florida panhandle, to a tiny town where all these girls have is each other. Simone is the barely twenty year old mother of five year old twins. Living in a truck, after her family kicked her out, the twins' father unable/unwilling/incapable (fill-in-the-blank) of providing much support. Simone is the oldest, the ringleader, the protector of the young mothers (mostly teenaged).

We have chapters from Emory, trying to finish high school with her baby strapped to her body. Rounding out the trio is Adela, a high school athlete sent to Florida to live with her grandmother and wait out her pregnancy, out of view of everybody back home.

The girls build their own village, with little family support. Institutional support is non-existent. It's heartbreaking, it's raw, it rings true. They're (mostly) teenagers, so there's all the drama that goes with that, plus children of their own.

Mottley challenges us to "shift the way we think and speak about young motherhood, girlhood, and, ultimately, the task of living a liberated life in a world that seeks to confine us" in the acknowledgments. With The Girls Who Grew Big following Nightcrawling, she's a fierce voice, and I look forward to what comes next.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 6/24/2025)

Told from the alternating POV of three young women, teen moms who have bonded together for survival and comfort, The Girls Who Grew Big is a tribute to everything lost and gained through motherhood and the power of female friendships to help us through it all.

Leila Mottley has written characters that you will love and root for, as well as beautifully flawed women and the men they love. The novel was not an easy, breezy summer read, as the characters deal with numerous difficult situations that come with unintended pregnancies and raising children in poverty. Realistically portrayed, the relationships between the girls and their parents were fraught with anger and disappointment, and served as the glue that formed the bond between the young mothers. My heart broke for each of them at various points in the novel, at the same time as I was incredibly proud of their strength.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for the digital ARC of The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley. The opinions in this review are my own.

I personally think everyone should read this. There is so much in here about life, love, community, finding your tribe and all the lessons that come with it. It is much more than just a story about babies having babies. It has words of wisdom that pertain to us all and I challenge you to read it and not be moved or in awe of the profound nature of it's story and characters.

This is one of those books that you can see and feel and smell. The reader can see these girls, can feel their skin all sticky with sweat and sunscreen, gritty with sand, smelling the top of a baby's head. From the first chapter, I wished I had the kind of memory to recall passages and recite them back because man oh man is there beauty and wisdom in these pages.

I like to acknowledge my bias if it exists, and my mom, having gone through the experience of teenage motherhood, might sway me toward this sympathetic and encompassing view of young mothers, but ultimately, Mottley gives young women the agency they crave and deserve. She shows us the nuance of childlike immaturity clashing with the depth of emotion and experience motherhood brings. If it's not apparent, I really love this book and highly recommend it.

It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Mottley is only 23 - there is so much she has yet to say, and I can't wait to hear when she does. Thank you to NetGalley et al. for the ARC.