Episode 98 - Leila Mottley, The Girls Who Grew Big

Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother's home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs an abortion in the heart of the South; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone's red truck. In this episode Lissa talks with author Leila Mottley about her latest novel The Girls Who Grew Big (Alfred Knopf 2025). Leila Mottley is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times best seller, and the poetry collection woke up no light. Her sophomore novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, is forthcoming in June 2025. She was also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live. For GO DEEPER information about Leila and other topics visit

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Episode 98 - Leila Mottley, The Girls Who Grew Big is an episode from Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads by iDream.tv.

This episode is 28:13 long.

This episode was published on Aug 24, 2025.

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