Exile to Padua Beach

Sixteen-year-old Adela's world shatters when her parents discover her pregnancy. To preserve their reputation, they exile her from Indiana to her grandmother Noni's cramped, cluttered house in Padua Beach, a poor, overlooked town on Florida's Panhandle. Adela, a star swimmer with Olympic dreams, is forced to leave behind her old life, friends, and ambitions. She arrives in a place where "babies havin' babies" is both a whispered shame and a fact of life, and where her own Blackness and outsider status make her feel doubly alien. Her parents' abandonment and the town's judgment leave her isolated, angry, and determined to keep her head down until she can give birth and return home.

Simone's Truck-Bed Birth

Simone, the de facto leader of the local "Girls"—teen mothers—gives birth to twins in the back of her boyfriend Tooth's red pickup truck, far from hospitals or help. Her birth is messy, primal, and unflinching, setting the tone for the novel's approach to motherhood: gritty, unglamorous, and fiercely loving. Simone's relationship with Tooth is complicated by age, power, and poverty, but her bond with her children is immediate and all-consuming. Her experience, and her refusal to be shamed, becomes a beacon for other young mothers in Padua Beach.

The Girls Form a Family

Simone's truck becomes the nucleus for a growing group of young mothers—Emory, Tori, Crystal, April, Jamilah, and others—who find in each other the support, knowledge, and acceptance denied them by their families and the town. They share childcare, food, and survival tips, and transform the back of the truck into a mobile haven. Their friendship is forged in adversity, but also in joy: dancing, breastfeeding, and watching their children grow. The Girls are judged and ostracized, but they reclaim their narrative, finding strength in their collective identity.

Adela's Arrival and Alienation

Initially, Adela is warned by her grandmother Noni to avoid the Girls, who are seen as cautionary tales. She is both fascinated and repelled by their boldness and camaraderie. Her own loneliness and the town's hostility eventually push her toward them, especially after a violent altercation with Simone. Through Emory, she begins to see the Girls' world from the inside, learning the realities of young motherhood, poverty, and the power of chosen family.

Emory's Struggles and Survival

Emory, white and academically gifted, becomes pregnant by Jayden, Simone's brother. She faces rejection from her conservative grandparents and the school system, but is determined to finish high school and go to college. Emory's journey is marked by exhaustion, resourcefulness, and a longing for more than Padua Beach can offer. Her friendship with Adela becomes a lifeline, but is complicated by unspoken feelings and the pressures of survival.

Bonds Forged at the Dune Lake

The Girls' rituals at the dune lake—washing clothes, sharing confessions, and caring for each other's children—cement their bond. Adela, still an outsider, is gradually accepted. The lake becomes a symbol of their resilience and the fluidity of their identities as both girls and mothers. Here, they teach each other practical skills and emotional truths, and the boundaries between blood family and chosen family blur.

Secrets, Fights, and Forgiveness

Conflicts arise: Simone's drinking during pregnancy, Adela's judgment, and the ever-present threat of abandonment. A drunken fight between Simone and Adela leaves Adela bruised and emotionally shattered, but also catalyzes a reckoning. The Girls confront their own pain, prejudices, and the ways they've internalized the world's contempt. Through apologies and acts of care, they begin to forgive each other and themselves.

Choices and Consequences

Simone discovers she is pregnant again and, unwilling to repeat her past, seeks an abortion. Legal and financial barriers, compounded by a hurricane that destroys the local clinic, force her to attempt a dangerous home abortion with the Girls' help. The experience is harrowing but ultimately successful, and it becomes a crucible for the group's solidarity and for Simone's self-determination. Adela, meanwhile, grapples with her own choices about her pregnancy and future.

The Hurricane and the Home Abortion

A hurricane traps the Girls and their children in Noni's basement, where Simone undergoes her home abortion. The storm outside mirrors the turmoil within, as the Girls confront their fears, regrets, and hopes. The ordeal leaves them physically and emotionally drained, but also more deeply connected. The hurricane becomes a turning point, after which nothing is the same.

Love, Lies, and Loss

Adela begins a relationship with Chris, a local lifeguard, not realizing he is Simone's ex and the father of her twins. When the truth comes out—at the worst possible moment, in a hospital emergency room after Simone's daughter is injured—the Girls' fragile trust is shattered. Emory, who harbors feelings for Adela, is devastated by the betrayal. The fallout forces each character to confront the limits of forgiveness and the cost of secrets.

The Girls' Hustle

To make ends meet, the Girls launch a business selling jungle juice to spring breakers on the beach. The scheme is both a financial lifeline and a testament to their ingenuity. The money they earn becomes a symbol of possibility, fueling dreams of escape, education, and a better life for their children. But it also exposes the inequalities between them, especially as Adela's privilege becomes more apparent.

Fractures and Social Services

When Simone's daughter Luck is seriously hurt, the hospital calls social services. The threat of losing her children to the system terrifies Simone and the Girls, who know how easily poor, young mothers can be deemed unfit. The episode exposes the precarity of their lives and the ways institutions fail them. Ultimately, the Girls rally to support Simone, and the crisis passes, but not without lasting scars.

Reconciliation and Reckoning

In the aftermath, the Girls begin to heal. Simone reconciles with her family and reclaims her agency. Emory, after a bachelorette party that forces her to confront her sexuality and desires, decides not to marry Jayden and instead pursues her dream of college. Adela, after a final rupture with Chris and a moment of clarity with Noni, chooses to keep her baby and build a life in Padua Beach. The Girls' circle, though changed, endures.

The Bachelorette and Becoming

The Girls throw Emory a bachelorette party at a secret queer bar in the woods, where she experiences freedom and desire outside the constraints of Padua Beach. The night is transformative, leading her to reject a future she doesn't want and to embrace her own complexity. The Girls' gift of their hard-earned money gives her the means to choose her own path.

Graduation and Goodbyes

Emory graduates high school, the first in her family to do so, and prepares to leave for college in Seattle, leaving her son Kai with Jayden for now. Simone decides to leave Padua Beach with her children, seeking a new start. The Girls gather for a final bonfire, celebrating their survival and the bonds that have sustained them. Adela, now overdue, feels the first pains of labor.

Birth on the Beach

In a scene that echoes the novel's beginning, Adela gives birth on the beach, surrounded by the Girls. The birth is communal, raw, and redemptive—a testament to the power of female solidarity and the cycles of life. As Adela meets her daughter, the Girls reflect on all they have lost and gained, and on the ways they have grown big—together.

Sand, Survival, and Selfhood

The novel closes with the Girls—older, wiser, and forever changed—claiming their right to define themselves. They have survived poverty, shame, violence, and loss, and have built a family out of what the world discarded. The sand of Padua Beach, like their lives, is made of countless fragments, each with its own history. In the end, they are not just girls who grew big, but women who made their own meaning.

Characters

Adela

Adela is a sixteen-year-old Black girl from Indiana, sent to Padua Beach after becoming pregnant. Once a star swimmer with Olympic dreams, she is forced to confront the loss of her old life and the realities of young motherhood. Adela is intelligent, proud, and initially judgmental of the Girls, but her loneliness and vulnerability draw her into their world. Her relationships—with her grandmother Noni, with Emory, with Chris, and with her own unborn child—are marked by longing, ambivalence, and a gradual acceptance of imperfection. Adela's journey is one of self-discovery, as she learns to claim her own story and to find strength in community.

Simone

Simone is the charismatic, tough, and deeply loving leader of the Girls. She gave birth to twins as a teenager in the back of a truck, and has since become the anchor for other young mothers in Padua Beach. Simone's relationship with Tooth is fraught with power imbalances and disappointment, but her devotion to her children is unwavering. She is both nurturing and volatile, quick to defend her friends but also prone to anger and self-doubt. Simone's arc is one of survival, sacrifice, and ultimately, self-liberation, as she learns to put her own needs first and to seek a better life for herself and her children.

Emory

Emory is a white teen mother, academically gifted and determined to escape the confines of Padua Beach. Pregnant by Jayden, Simone's brother, she faces rejection from her family and the school system, but refuses to give up on her dreams. Emory's friendship with Adela is intense and, at times, romantic, providing both solace and complication. She is resourceful, stubborn, and often torn between loyalty to the Girls and her desire for independence. Emory's journey is about reconciling ambition with responsibility, and about learning to love herself as both a mother and a young woman.

Tooth (Chris)

Tooth, also known as Chris, is Simone's ex and the father of her twins, as well as Adela's love interest. He is older, attractive, and initially seems supportive, but is ultimately self-serving and emotionally immature. His relationships with both Simone and Adela are marked by manipulation, abandonment, and the perpetuation of cycles of harm. Tooth embodies the dangers and allure of seeking validation from men who cannot or will not provide real support.

Noni

Noni is Adela's paternal grandmother, a practical, loving, and slightly eccentric woman who becomes Adela's main support in Padua Beach. She is a keeper of family history, herbal remedies, and hard-won wisdom. Noni's home is cluttered but welcoming, and she provides Adela with both tough love and unconditional acceptance. Her presence is a reminder of the importance of roots, resilience, and the power of women's knowledge.

Jayden

Jayden is Simone's younger brother and the father of Emory's child. He is gentle, earnest, and often caught between the women in his life. Jayden wants to do right by Emory and their son, but is limited by his own upbringing and the expectations of masculinity in his community. His proposal to Emory and subsequent heartbreak reflect the complexities of love, obligation, and the desire for belonging.

Luck and Lion

Luck and Lion are Simone's twins, born in the back of a truck and raised by the Girls. They are lively, curious, and deeply bonded to their mother and each other. Their experiences—injury, separation, reunion—mirror the novel's themes of vulnerability and survival. Through them, the Girls' capacity for love and sacrifice is made tangible.

The Girls (Tori, Crystal, April, Jamilah, etc.)

The Girls are a shifting group of young mothers who form a chosen family in Padua Beach. Each brings her own history, struggles, and strengths, but together they create a network of care that defies the town's scorn. Their solidarity is tested by poverty, betrayal, and loss, but endures through humor, resourcefulness, and shared experience.

Adela's Parents

Adela's parents, especially her father, are more concerned with reputation than with their daughter's well-being. Their decision to send her away is both a punishment and an abdication of responsibility. Their eventual acquiescence to Adela's choices reflects the limits of parental control and the inevitability of change.

Social Services / The Town

The institutions and people of Padua Beach serve as both antagonists and background, embodying the societal forces that police, punish, and pathologize young mothers. Their interventions—whether through gossip, school policy, or child protective services—highlight the precariousness of the Girls' lives and the need for mutual aid.

Plot Devices

Rotating First-Person Narration

The novel is told through the alternating perspectives of Simone, Adela, and Emory, with occasional interludes from other characters. This structure allows for a polyphonic exploration of motherhood, race, class, and girlhood, and reveals the ways each character's understanding of events is shaped by her own history and desires. The shifting voices create empathy, tension, and a sense of collective experience.

Cyclical Structure and Mirrored Scenes

The novel opens and closes with scenes of birth—Simone's twins in the truck, Adela's daughter on the beach—framing the narrative as a cycle of loss and renewal. Key events (fights, reconciliations, departures) are mirrored across characters and time, emphasizing the patterns that shape women's lives and the possibility of breaking or remaking them.

Symbolism of Water, Sand, and the Truck

Water (the ocean, the dune lake, the pool) recurs as a symbol of transformation, danger, and connection. Sand, with its history of erosion and accumulation, represents both the fragility and endurance of the Girls' lives. The red truck is both a literal and metaphorical vehicle for escape, community, and birth.

Foreshadowing and Retrospective Wisdom

The narrative is laced with foreshadowing—warnings about the placenta, the dangers of love, the inevitability of loss—that create suspense and a sense of lived experience. Characters often reflect on past choices with the wisdom of hindsight, inviting readers to consider the costs and gifts of growing up too soon.

Social Critique and Direct Address

The novel frequently breaks the fourth wall, with characters addressing the reader directly to challenge stereotypes about teen mothers, poverty, and the South. This device invites empathy, complicates judgment, and asserts the Girls' right to tell their own stories.

Analysis

Leila Mottley's The Girls Who Grew Big is a raw, lyrical, and unflinching exploration of girlhood, motherhood, and survival on the margins of American society. Through the intertwined stories of Adela, Simone, Emory, and their chosen family, the novel dismantles stereotypes about teen mothers and poor Southern communities, revealing the complexity, resilience, and joy that exist alongside pain and struggle. Mottley's use of multiple narrators, vivid natural imagery, and cyclical structure underscores the ways trauma and love are inherited, resisted, and transformed. The Girls' journey—from shame and isolation to solidarity and self-acceptance—offers a powerful meditation on agency, community, and the right to define one's own life. Ultimately, the novel insists that growing big is not just about surviving adversity, but about claiming space, telling the truth, and loving fiercely in a world that would rather see you small.

Last updated: July 9, 2025