Leila Mottley writes books about women who she thinks are being ignored as they weather tough circumstances in a contemporary world. In her second novel, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG (which follows her heartbreaking debut, NIGHTCRAWLING), she takes readers on a tour of the rundown Florida Panhandle, the forgotten beachside town of Padua, and the teen mothers who find a way to balance their babies and their hardscrabble existence with the joy of being young.