"Lipper writes with compassion and insight, is not judgmental, and accentuates her subjects' strengths... I would recommend this book not only for health care professionals taking care of adolescent girls but possibly to teenagers themselves, so they can read firsthand the struggles of these young parents" - JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of six teen mothers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a post-industrial city in Berkshire County that was until the late 1980's, a manufacturing base for the General Electric Company. It documents the lives of these teenagers, their families and members of the community, as they witness factory closings and the transformation of their hometown under the strain of economic and social upheaval and the influx of drugs.
Author and filmmaker Joanna Lipper first met Amy, Shayla, Jessica, Colleen, Liz, and Sheri back in 1999, when they were all enrolled at the Teen Parent Program. Making a short documentary film was only the beginning of an extraordinary journey that continued for four years as Lipper videotaped and interviewed the girls, their families, and the fathers of their babies. This raw material was the basis for Growing Up Fast.
Often masked by statistics, demonized by the media, and stereotyped by people of all political persuasions, the voices and stories of these teen parents reveal the complex, disturbing, and often painful reality behind a vast array of social issues including welfare reform, low wages, drugs, domestic and dating violence, the prevalence of child abuse, and the role of education. In the tradition of The Corner and Studs Terkel’s Working, Growing Up Fast is a landmark work of empathy that will speak powerfully to parents, teachers, social workers, policy-makers, doctors, psychologists, policemen, lawyers, and teenagers.
"...extraordinary reporting... clear, insightful prose.... Growing Up Fast succeeds because of the author's evident respect for her subjects." - Mother Jones
"This book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they known what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path." - The Washington Post
