# Event Details - **Event Name**: The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event - **Event Start and End Date**: Tue, 01 Jul, 2025 at 07:00 pm – Tue, 01 Jul, 2025 at 08:30 pm - **Event Description**: An astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.About this EventWe are very excited to welcome Leila Mottley for an in-person event celebrating her newest release, The Girls Who Grew Big. For this event, Leila will be joined in conversation by Kara Jackson.Please note: This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Masks are required for our in-person events.From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.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 her options when she finds herself pregnant again; 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.The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.LEILA MOTTLEY is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller, and the poetry collection woke up no light. She is also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live.KARA JACKSON is a writer, musician and performer based in Chicago, Illinois. A daughter of country folks, her work draws a map from the Deep South to the midwest, where she was raised. Through her work she tries to embody the stories of the women in her family, engaging how the experience of the women who came before her inform her reality in the present. Her work has appeared in POETRY, Frontier Poetry, Rookie Mag, Nimrod Literary Journal, The Lily, and Saint Heron. She released her debut album “Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?” In 2023.Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. We have dimmable, non-fluorescent lights. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/chicago/the-girls-who-grew-big-by-leila-mottley-book-event/100001376730340509 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, entertainment, performances, music - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: Chicago - **state**: IL - **country**: United States - **location**: Women & Children First - **lat**: 41.97722220000001 - **long**: -87.6682417 - **full address**: Women & Children First, 5233 North Clark Street, Chicago, United States ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/b2af871407399f01c7119e788ec64180e7464f032404ad65f0ba0119d7907540-rimg-w1200-h600-dc5b7f41-gmir.jpg?v=1750466597 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event being held? - **A:** The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event takes place on Tue, 01 Jul, 2025 at 07:00 pm to Tue, 01 Jul, 2025 at 08:30 pm at Women & Children First, 5233 North Clark Street, Chicago, United States. - **Q**: Who is organizing The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event? - **A:** The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event is organized by Women & Children First. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley Book Event", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/b2af871407399f01c7119e788ec64180e7464f032404ad65f0ba0119d7907540-rimg-w1200-h600-dc5b7f41-gmir.jpg?v=1750466597", "startDate": "2025-07-01", "endDate": "2025-07-01", "url": "https://allevents.in/chicago/the-girls-who-grew-big-by-leila-mottley-book-event/100001376730340509", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Women & Children First", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "5233 North Clark Street", "postalCode": "60640", "addressLocality": "Chicago", "addressRegion": "IL", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "41.97722220000001", "longitude": "-87.6682417" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "An astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-08", "availabilityEnds": "2025-07-01", "validFrom": "2026-04-08", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/chicago/the-girls-who-grew-big-by-leila-mottley-book-event/100001376730340509" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-08", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-08", "url": "https://allevents.in/chicago/the-girls-who-grew-big-by-leila-mottley-book-event/100001376730340509", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-08", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-08", "url": "https://allevents.in/chicago/the-girls-who-grew-big-by-leila-mottley-book-event/100001376730340509", "price": 0, "name": "Donation to the WCF Event Fund" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Women & Children First", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/women-and-children-first/17676387", "description": "Women & Children First is one of the largest feminist bookstores in the country, stocking more than 30,000 books by and about women, children's books for all ages, and the best of lesbian and gay fiction and non-fiction. And we also serve as a neighborhood bookstore to Andersonville, Edgewater, Rogers Park, and other parts of the northside of Chicago and Evanston. Anything we don't have in stock we can usually get in a few days' time, even if it's a title outside our specialty. We also carry cards, magazines, blank books and journals, calendars, gift items like candles, and pride products." } ] } ] ```