The Girls Who Grew Big

In Padua Beach, a fictional town on the Florida Panhandle, a loose community of teenage mothers has formed its own support network, known locally as "the Girls," led by Simone. Sixteen-year-old Adela arrives an outsider — sent from Indiana to live with her grandmother after a restrictive state abortion law leaves her without options — and is drawn into the Girls' orbit as she navigates pregnancy and motherhood far from home.

Mottley, whose debut Nightcrawling was longlisted for the Booker Prize, writes about teen pregnancy and reproductive law without softening the material: the novel includes an unassisted home abortion and does not shy from the physical and emotional toll of the girls' circumstances. At the same time, the book is centrally about the community the Girls build among themselves — a found family formed in response to systems that have failed them.

The Girls Who Grew Big continues Mottley's interest in girlhood under pressure, reproductive autonomy, and the resilience of young women whom the wider world treats as disposable.