Una fifteen year old gives birth to two twins alonein the box of a pick-up. It is Simone, who then meet five years later, Always on that truck where his children live and grow. In Padua Beach, the imaginary town of Florida, he created a little community of teenage mothersrejected by society and hunted by families why bearers of shame.
Among them are Adela, promise of swimming, sent into exile to give birthand Emory, the only white, who dreams of going to university. Bivouac on the beach, sleep in the car, build themselves a support networkthe only one they can count on. Until Adela falls in love with Wrong guy And the group’s balance is compromised.
Girls who become great It is the second novel of the American Leila Mottley23 years old. His first book, written at 14, Walk the night, He was a finalist at the Booker Prize. The talent is evident in the construction of Voices of the three girlsso distinct, so three -dimensional; in the raw description, without sweetening or consolationof early maternity; in intertwining issues such as abortion, sexual abuse, teenage love (queer and straight), without judgment and through a kaleidoscope of perspectives.
At the end of the book he thanks the girls who told her about their maternity stories. Are Simone, Adela and Emory inspired real people?
No. I have several friends and family who became parents very early and gave me their testimonies. However, I wanted to deepen the research on young mothers, I spoke with teenagers of different American states and different ages. It was important for me to know the widest possible spectrum of experiences and then tell them. But none of the characters are real.
Leila Mottley lives in Oakland, California. His debut novel, walking at night, entered the New York Times’ bestseller ranking, and was a finalist of the Booker Prize. In 2018, at sixteen, she was the youngest author to be appointed Oakland’s official poet (Ph Olivier Dion).
The theme of abortion is central to history. He wanted to enter the debate on reproductive rights, which today in the United States, but not only, are they questioned again?
Shortly after starting to write, everything has changed in America, the historic ROE sentence against Wade (who recognized the free choice of the woman, editor’s note) was canceled, making the interruption of pregnancy much more difficult. Each state has decided for itself and above all in the south access to abortion has been very limited, so I chose to set the story in Florida. In this climate it was even more important for me to deal with the topic.
Themes already glimpsed in Walk the nightlike the representation of forgotten young people, marginalized, in a degrading reality. Why do they interest them?
We rarely read such stories. Minors have no rights, they have no autonomy. The world says that their experience is secondary compared to that of adults. But that’s not the case. I wanted to show that you can be a teenager and also a mother. My characters do everything the teenager do, they fall in love, go to the holidays, study. But then they breastfeed, play, lly their children. Even if with enormous difficulty.
The story is told by three different points of view, firsthand. How did you build the rumors of the individual characters?
It was a challenge, I wanted to be sure that every girl had a perspective formed by her life experience and how she grew up. I wrote the parts separately, making a sort of diary for each, and then I put them together.
Girls who become great by Leila Mottley, Bollati Boringhieri pages. 336, Euro 19.
We have adult mothers who abandon pregnant daughters and baby mothers who challenge stereotypes and become good parents. Was he looking for this contrast?
I didn’t want to judge, but simply show many types of motherhood. These teenagers for the first time are disappointed by their mothers who refuse them and then become mothers in turn and understand many things. They do their best to raise children, like everyone else. And a support network are created and a family that is not the one of origin.
EMORY says: “It is much safer not to want anything.” Is that what the company wants to make young people believe?
Yes. It encourages them to have realistic expectations and this means rejecting their dreams. EMory is preparing to be disappointed, to accept what is given to her. But then, just her, everyone surprises with a decision that nobody expects.
The book has a three -part structure (first, second and third quarter): reflects a pregnancy?
Adela’s gestation follows. So in the end we only see the birth of a child but also the rebirth of these three girls. Ten months, in adolescence, are a very long time. All three in that period grow and they come to understand what they really want. For the first time I am no longer a group, but they make individual decisions.
What did you give you the push to start writing?
Poetry. At six I wrote poems. In sixteen they appointed me “poet graduate” (official poet) of Oakland, my city. Writing is a need, I like the challenge of creating whole worlds and investing time in people who do not exist except on paper.