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.

There is no doubt in my mind that Leila Mottley has a gift. In The Girls Who Grew Big we meet a group of pregnant teens and teen moms from a small coastal town in Florida who find community within each other. In this heartfelt tale we meet strong girls who are trying to grow while growing/raising babies with less than optimal support. I rather enjoyed how we see these girls grow and learn and strive for more than just the mere minimum they're offered.

This novel was raw, emotional and all kinds of compelling.

One of my favorite quotes: "Motherhood made you believe blindly, hope endlessly, behave irrationally, as long as it meant those children tucked safely in the pocket of your love."

This book felt like watching Teen Mom. A train wreck that you can’t stop watching, all the while you’re rooting for the teen moms to pull it together and overcome adversity.

A group of teen moms find solace, friendship, and community in each other in a small Florida town. Faced with the judgement and backlash of being teen moms, the girls need as much support from each other as they can get. Still young and trying to do what’s best for their futures and their children, they stumble through the most complicated times of their lives together.

One decision can derail your plans or change your life, but it doesn’t mean your life is over. This book is a love letter to those young moms who’ve been abandoned by their loved ones, their friends, their community, and yet still persevered.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heartfelt ode to mothers of all ages, especially those with support in slim supply. This was a heart-rending account of teenage mothers and pregnancies through the eyes of children becoming mothers before they were able to fully become women. Carefully crafted and set tenderly in the Florida panhandle, this book needs to be shared to understand what many pregnant teens experience. Thank you to Knopf and Net Galley for this ARC.

The Girls Who Grew Big centers around three teen mothers as they, along with the rest of their group, navigate young motherhood. The three main characters Simone, Emory, and Adela have heartbreaking and moving stories, while Simone's truck and their town of Padua Beach serve almost as secondary characters in the story. This book is so beautifully written and sheds a harsh light on the way teen mothers are perceived. Race and class themes tie the whole setting together. This book will pull at your little heartstrings, make you think, and leave you a little more empathetic. Strongly!! Recommend!!

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!! <3 <3

What a poignant and thought provoking novel! You are immediately swept up in the lives of Simone, Emory and Adela and their teenage pregnancies. All three girls come from wildly different backgrounds and each face a set of unique challenges. This novel pays true homage to the term "American grit." I couldn't love these girls more if I tried. They were raw and tenderhearted and scrappy. One of the things I loved most was how real and honest these girls were. Their whole lives were turned upside down by these pregnancies, but yet they still managed to find a way to go on and survive. This wasn't a book that glorified teenage pregnancies and their struggles cemented how strong and resilient these girls were.

Rating: 🤗/4.25
Review: Found family book of young moms who were discarded by those who supposedly loved them but found community and meaning with each other.
Giving vibes of Where the Crawdads Live. Beautiful writing about motherhood.

Format: 👩🏻‍💻
Source: #netgalley
Published on Goodreads 6/30/2025

4+ stars-Nowheresville, Florida, on the panhandle where even the tourists don’t really visit. A group of teen mom gathers at the beach, because they are that each other has, but that is enough. Most of the time. Simone lives on the beach in a truck with her four year old twins and acts as the matriarch.

Adela is working towards the Olympics in swimming when she meets a boy who promises her everything, until he doesn’t. It’s just a detour for her parents, go have this baby in Florida while living with your grandma, give it up for adoption, and come back to your dreams her parents say. Emory is pregnant with Simone’s younger brother’s baby when she brings Adela to the group.

So begins a story of the struggles of these single moms, their complicated relationships of their families, and the dads who are around when they are and not when they are not. Leila Mottley is a writer with extreme talent! She is able to write characters that you love and hate at the same time. There is so much depth to the story and truth that is human, it’s hard, and it’s raw and absolutely hard to know sometimes…but that makes her writing different in the best way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the pleasure of the arc.

Leila Mottley made waves when, at just 19 years old, she released her debut novel Nightcrawling. That book became a bestseller, an Oprah Book Club pick, and a critical darling. It even landed on my list of favorite reads of 2020. Not bad for a first outing. When her publisher offered me an early copy of her highly anticipated sophomore novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. It's another raw, sobering character study about girls forced to grow up too fast and live with the consequences of their choices.

From the start, Mottley makes clear the kind of unflinching story she’s here to tell. We meet Simone, a pregnant teenager giving birth in the back of a pickup truck. The baby’s father watches in panic as she delivers fraternal twins, right there in the thick, humid air of small-town Florida. There’s a certain brutality to the moment, but also a revelation. For the first time in her life, Simone knows what real love feels like. She isn’t sure how she’ll provide for her children, but she knows she will. She has to.

Then there’s Emory, who was at the top of her class before she got pregnant. She never stopped doing her schoolwork—not during the pregnancy, not after giving birth. Every day, she arrives at school with her newborn in tow, determined to graduate and attend college. One mistake isn’t going to ruin her life. She won’t let it. Not for her sake, and not for her child’s.

Finally, we meet Adela, a sixteen-year-old swimming phenom with Olympic dreams—until her pregnancy sends those ambitions off course. Her parents send her away from their Indiana home to live with her grandmother in Padua Beach, Florida. It’s there that Adela meets Simone, now raising four-year-old twins, and Emory, along with the rest of “the Girls”, a makeshift community of teen mothers doing their best to raise their children and hold onto their futures.

From the outside, it may seem as though these girls have lost their way. But as Mottley makes clear, they’re just beginning to find it.

With The Girls Who Grew Big, Leila Mottley proves the success of her debut novel was no fluke. This new work revisits familiar themes—lost innocence, the impact of poverty, and the paradoxes of womanhood—but it’s far from a retread. Mottley expands her storytelling by shifting perspectives among three protagonists, each of whom faces the realities of teenage motherhood in her own way. Through them, we see how different personalities respond to the same impossible weight.

At times, it can be overwhelming to read. The stories are tragic in a way that makes you pause and reflect on them. But that’s the point. These traumas aren’t uncommon. For many young women, this is real life. The systems aren’t built to support them, and the social stigmas they face are relentless.

The Girls Who Grew Big is raw, emotional, and brilliant. Mottley takes big swings and grapples with even bigger ideas. The novel may feel rough around the edges at times, but that’s part of its power. This is writing with heart. It feels lived-in, honest, and bursting with truth. I have no doubt this book will end up on my list of favorites at the end of the year.

The Girls Who Grew Big is an outstanding piece of work that made me think so much deeper than a few teenage girls who got pregnant. I was locked in from the very first page! Everyone had given up on these girls, their families, teachers, even whole towns, but they never gave up on each other. Their bond is raw, unshakable, and beautifully real. I fell in love with each of them, flaws and all. And the truck? It’s not just a truck, it’s their shield, their escape, their home. It is their safe space, holding all their secrets, their laughter, and their pain. This book is about survival, girlhood, and choosing love in a world that’s turned its back. I couldn’t stop reading. I didn’t want it to end. This is my first book by Leila Mottley, but I guarantee this will not be my last. This story felt so real and personal. This book will make you think twice before passing judgement. I enjoyed Mottley's writing. Although this is not my typical genre, I was captivated immediately. I laughed, I cried, I felt the hurt and betrayals, but most of all I gained a new perspective and found a new respect for all Emorys, Simones, and Adelas who are going through these situations everyday in real life. That's what made this book different for me.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and NetGalley for the advance review copy. It did not disappoint.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc!

As someone who just recently started reading fiction, I thoroughly, THOROUGHLY enjoyed this story. The Girls Who Grew Big is messy, full of love and complicated coming of age tales, and so much more. I enjoyed getting to see the journeys of each girl. Purchasing the physical as soon as I can snag a paperback.

A raw, tender, beautiful and real look at young motherhood, girlhood and just learning to love yourself…even when the odds are so against you.

I mostly really enjoyed this book but there was a sort of side plot/theme about an orca that was washed up on the beach that kept popping back up occasionally and didn’t feel like it was tied in well with the rest of the story with me and overall felt like the book would have been better without it. But otherwise loved this story of a group of teen moms who support each other as they take care of their children and navigate difficult familial and romantic relationships.

This novel about a group of teen moms in a small beach town in Florida's panhandle with stick with me for awhile. The writing is so beautiful and she creates a group of characters you cannot help but root for, even when not agreeing with their decisions. Mottley really nails pregnancy and early motherhood well. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy. 4.25 stars.

I really loved the first half of this book. The characters are compelling, and their voices are distinct. As the book progressed, however, and the plot thickens, it became a little melodramatic for my taste. The characters wax poetic far too often, and it began to feel soapy in an “after-school-special” kind of way. As a mom, there were also a couple inaccuracies surrounding pregnancy and childbirth that irked me.

If the writing in the second half had been tightened and focused, this would have been a four star read for me.

Eye opening, raw, honest, brutal…made me think about my views on things.
Teen mothers…so much baggage they carry. So much judgment we inflict. We all need to find more empathy for others. Beautiful story.