The Girls Who Grew Big

The Girls Who Grew Big (2025) is a contemporary literary novel by American author Leila Mottley. The story is set in the fictional town of Padua Beach in the Florida Panhandle and follows a group of teen mothers known collectively as “the Girls.” Led by the fiercely resilient Simone and finding themselves harshly judged and largely abandoned by their loved ones, they form a found family to navigate the scorn of their small-town community. Their lives are further complicated when Simone discovers she is pregnant for a second time and when Adela, a pregnant teenager from a wealthy Indianapolis suburb, is exiled to the town during her pregnancy to live with her grandmother. Using rotating first-person narrators, the novel explores themes such as The Transformative Power of Motherhood , Found Family as a Remedy for Rejection, and Reconnecting with the Healing Power of the Land. 

Leila Mottley is an Oakland, California, native whose work often centers on the lives of marginalized young women who must confront systemic injustice. Her debut novel, Nightcrawling (2022), was a major critical success and has become a New York Times bestseller, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, and made Mottley one of the youngest-ever Booker Prize longlist nominees. The Girls Who Grew Big continues her exploration of these themes, situating its characters within the specific sociopolitical context of the American South. The novel’s setting in the Florida Panhandle is crucial, as the region’s distinct Southern culture and restrictive reproductive healthcare laws create significant barriers for the characters, making their struggle for autonomy and dignity a timely commentary on reproductive justice in the United States.

This guide refers to the 2025 Alfred A. Knopf first hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of racism, sexual violence, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy termination, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The narrative begins in Padua Beach, Florida, with the first-person narration of Simone, the 20-year-old leader of a group of teen mothers known collectively as “the Girls.” Simone recalls giving birth to her twins, Luck and Lion, in a pickup truck at age 16 as her boyfriend, Tooth, looked on. In the years since her children’s birth, other teen mothers like Simone, who have also been ostracized by their community, have gradually congregated around her, and together they have formed a mutual support system. In the present, four and a half years later, Simone takes a pregnancy test that comes back positive, filling her with dread. She believes that having another baby will ruin her life and permanently tie her to Tooth, from whom she is growing distant.

The perspective shifts to Adela, a 16-year-old competitive swimmer from a wealthy Indianapolis suburb. As a consequence of her unplanned pregnancy, her deeply religious parents have sent her to live with her paternal grandmother, Noni, until she bears the child and gives it up for adoption. Shattered by her parents’ decision to exile her to her father’s former hometown, the athletic Adela is unimpressed with Padua Beach. As Noni drives them toward her cluttered home, Adela observes the Girls dancing around a red pickup truck and fears their wildness, viewing them as a cautionary tale. Later, she walks to the beach and is mesmerized by her first sight of the ocean.

Emory, a member of the Girls and mother to a newborn son named Kai, sees Adela standing in the ocean and feels an instant romantic connection to her. A flashback reveals Emory’s struggles with her unsupportive grandparents, who hold racist attitudes toward Kai’s father, Jayden, who is Simone’s brother. Now, unable to get Kai to breastfeed and frustrated by her broken pump, Emory shrugs off her grandmother’s contemptuous comments and desperately seeks out Simone, who successfully teaches her how to nurse Kai. During the gathering, Emory announces her plans to go to college, which the other Girls mock. Later, at the beach, Emory again sees Adela and watches as a large wave envelops her; to her surprise, Adela remains standing.

The narrative shifts to Simone’s perspective as she meets Tooth at McDonald’s, intending to tell him that she is pregnant again with his child. Before she can do so, he announces that he has rented a house with his male friends and wants the twins to have sleepovers. Simone refuses to allow her children around strange men, and the two have a heated argument that solidifies her decision not to have another child with him. She leaves without revealing her pregnancy. During the argument, she notices Adela and Noni eating in the same restaurant, although she does not yet know who they are. 

Adela later goes to the community pool to train and meets the lifeguard, Chris. After she becomes nauseous and vomits in the pool, he is kind and cleans it without shaming her. He asks her out, but she is still mortified by her ill-timed nausea and runs away.

Emory returns to high school with Kai in tow, successfully defying the dean, Mrs. Simmons, when the woman tries to forbid her from bringing the baby to class. At lunch, Emory befriends Adela. Their conversation is interrupted when an alligator appears on the school lawn, and Emory helps a panicked Adela escape. They continue to bond while waiting in the auditorium, and Emory invites Adela to meet the Girls. Emory brings Adela to the Girls’ usual meeting spot at the dune lake, where Simone reveals that she is pregnant and plans to terminate the pregnancy. When Adela confronts Simone about drinking alcohol, an enraged Simone physically attacks her.

After Adela blames Emory for the attack and rejects her, an isolated Emory reflects on her history with Jayden, revealing that she intentionally got pregnant. In the present, she attends a clothing drive at Jayden’s church, where she is surprised to find herself warmly welcomed. 

Needing money to terminate her pregnancy, Simone asks Jayden to get Emory’s frozen breast milk so that she can sell it. He refuses, telling her to apologize to Emory herself. Simone does so, and Emory agrees to give her the milk. After selling the milk around town, Simone earns enough money to make an appointment at the Planned Parenthood clinic.

The next morning, a bruised Adela calls her parents and begs to come home, but they refuse. Feeling abandoned, she agrees to a date with Chris. The two connect deeply, and she lies, telling him that she has never had sex with anyone before.

Adela goes on another date with Chris, and they have sex. When he reveals he is 27 and has two children, Adela hides her shock. Later, she has her first sonogram and feels a connection to the fetus for the first time. A friend from home informs her that the baby’s father, David, is denying paternity. Feeling betrayed, Adela goes to Emory’s house and shows her the ultrasound photo, reconciling their friendship.

As a hurricane approaches Padua Beach, Emory asks Adela if all the Girls can shelter at Noni’s house, and Adela agrees, as Noni has taken a sleeping pill and will not know that the Girls are present. After a moment of reluctance, she agrees to forgive Simone and allows her to come over as well. Grateful to have arranged shelter, Emory then accompanies Simone on the dangerous, stormy drive to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Tallahassee, only to find that the clinic building has been heavily damaged by a fallen tree. Devastated, Simone drives back through the storm, realizing that the clinic will not be repaired in time for her to terminate the pregnancy; she cannot afford to find a clinic in a different area, and the laws in the neighboring states will not accommodate her situation. 

That night at Noni’s house, the Girls discuss Simone’s remaining options as the hurricane rages outside. One girl, Crystal, suggests an herbal tea to induce a miscarriage. Adela and Simone sneak into Noni’s room and find the necessary herbs. Simone drinks the tea. Meanwhile, The Girls urge Emory to send in her college application, and she does. Later, Adela announces that she is in love with someone, and when she winks, a smitten Emory incorrectly assumes that Adela is in love with her. When Simone’s tea finally takes effect, she endures a painful, self-induced pregnancy termination in the bathtub, supported by the other Girls. 

As time passes, Emory waits eagerly for Adela to confess her love outright and is confused when Adela never does. Months later, in the second trimester of Adela’s pregnancy, Emory finds a beached orca and rallies the Girls and Jayden to try to save it, but it is already dead. Distraught over the incident, she seeks comfort from Adela. Unable to articulate her distress over the orca, she claims instead that she feels regret over Simone’s miscarriage. A flashback reveals that Emory was molested as a child. Later, Simone and Jayden decide to bury the orca on the beach, and this experience prompts Simone to reflect on her estrangement from her parents.

Adela’s pregnancy begins to show, and when Chris sees her belly, he assumes that the baby is his. Hoping that he will be a good father to her child, Adela allows him to believe this. He then reveals that his children’s mother is Simone. Adela is shocked to realize that Chris and “Tooth” are the same person. Recalling Simone’s ferocity when angered, she decides to keep her relationship with Tooth a secret. Determined to preserve her romantic relationship with him and her bond with the Girls, she resolves to avoid any situation in which all of them would be together in the same place. As time passes, she grows more distant from the Girls. 

Emory, who has been accepted to multiple colleges and is on-track to become the valedictorian of her class, confronts Adela about her distant behavior. Adela confesses that she is in love with a man and has let him believe that her baby is his. Emory is heartbroken when she realizes that Adela’s feelings are not for her. During spring break, the Girls sell a homemade alcoholic drink called “jungle juice” on the beach and are surprised when they make several hundred dollars in one afternoon. They realize that they could make several thousands of dollars if they sell drinks every weekend during spring break. Simone also overhears a beachgoer talking and recognizes her as a woman from a crisis pregnancy center. This triggers a flashback to when she was 15 and was manipulated by the center’s staff, who revealed she was having twins and then sent her home after refusing to discuss pregnancy termination at all.

Emory and Jayden have sex, after which he confronts her about her grandfather’s racism. Deciding that if he were married to Emory, her family would have to accept him, he then proposes marriage. 

Meanwhile, Simone feels pangs of nostalgia for her childhood and decides to take her children to visit her mother, even though her mother has shunned her ever since the twins were born. The visit begins calmly but escalates into a fight when her mother tells Simone she is not a “real mother.” The conversation is cut short when Luck falls from a bunk bed and suffers a broken arm and a serious head injury. 

At the hospital, Simone calls Tooth, knowing that he should be there. When he gets the call, he and Adela are together in his car. He immediately heads to the hospital, ignoring Adela’s resistance to the idea of meeting Simone. (Adela has been hiding the fact that she already knows the Girls.) At the hospital, Simone realizes that Tooth, whose real name is Chris, has been sexually involved with Adela, and a volatile argument erupts. Emory arrives and witnesses the confrontation just as a doctor informs them that Luck has a skull fracture and a brain bleed and will need an MRI. Devastated by Adela’s betrayal and lamenting the fact that Adela never loved her, Emory accepts Jayden’s proposal.

Simone is briefly removed from the hospital after an emotional crisis. She learns that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been called due to the Luck’s injury and the fight with Adela and Tooth. Simone is terrified that her children will be taken away, but Jayden reveals that he coerced their mother into giving a supportive statement to the social worker. Soon, Luck’s condition stabilizes. 

A few days later, Emory, who is unenthusiastic about planning her wedding to Jayden, is kicked out of her grandparents’ house after her Pawpaw finds Jayden there and explodes in a racist tirade. 

Meanwhile, Adela continues to let Chris believe that her baby is his. She invites him to go with her to get her latest sonogram, but when the staff reveals that her pregnancy is 38 weeks along, Chris realizes that the baby can’t be his. He abandons her there, and she calls Simone to pick her up. Simone listens compassionately to Adela and predicts that Adela will go back to Chris despite his callousness. 

As time passes, Adela and Chris fall into a toxic pattern of fighting, breaking up, and reconciling, until finally, when Chris insults her pregnant body, she leaves him for good. Meanwhile, the Girls, sans Adela, rally to defend Crystal’s daughter, Cece, from being ostracized at a local park.

Adela has an honest conversation with Noni about self-worth, decides to keep her baby, and cuts off all contact with Chris. For prom weekend, the Girls throw a surprise bachelorette party for Emory at a hidden LGBTQ+ bar, and as they enjoy the festivities, Emory kisses another girl, then heads outside in shame when Simone sees her. Simone follows and urges her not to marry Jayden if she doesn’t truly want to. The Girls then give Emory the $2,000 they earned selling jungle juice, intending to ensure her financial independence. 

On graduation day, Emory breaks off her engagement with Jayden, telling him that she is moving to Seattle to attend college. She proposes that Kai stay with Jayden during the school year. When she graduates, she feels newly hopeful. Just before Emory’s graduation ceremony, Adela tells her father that she is keeping the baby and staying in Florida. During the graduation, she feels her first labor pains but does not identify them as such.

After the ceremony, the Girls have a celebratory bonfire on the beach. Simone announces that she is also leaving Padua Beach to travel with her children. Suddenly, Adela’s labor intensifies, shocking Emory with its suddenness. With Simone taking charge and Emory coaching her, Adela gives birth to her daughter on the beach, catching the newborn in her own hands. Surrounded by the Girls, she holds her baby and feels an overwhelming sense of peace and love as she embraces her new identity as a mother.