When Adela Woods tells her parents she's pregnant, they immediately send her a thousand miles away, to stay with her grandmother in Padua Beach: 'the forgotten Panhandle of Florida that was better off being forgotten'. They hope that their sixteen-year-old's situation might end up being forgotten too. In Padua Adela meets Emory, determined to defy the expectations of everyone around her, who comes to high school with her baby strapped to her chest. She also meets Simone, ringleader of 'the Girls,' a group of young mothers (babies havin' babies) who hang out in the back of her red truck-dancing, breastfeeding, watching each other's backs. The town thinks they've lost their way. Really, they are finding it. But as they look for love, make and break friendships, navigate the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood, Adela, Emory and Simone also find themselves on an inescapable collision course with one another. A novel full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.