Growing Up Fast [Hardcover]

Joanna Lipper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0312422229 | ISBN-13: 978-0312422226 | Edition: 1st

In Growing Up Fast Joanna Lipper tells the life stories of Amy, Shayla, Jessica, Colleen, Liz, and Sheri--six teen mothers whom she first met in l999 when they were all enrolled at the Teen Parent Program in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 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, which in the words of Naomi Wolf, "reads like a nineteenth-century novel about young women burdened by fates they did not choose."

Less than a decade older than these teen parents, Joanna Lipper was able to blend into the fabric of their lives. She earned their trust as they shared with her the daily reality of their lives and their experiences growing up in the economically depressed post-industrial landscape of Pittsfield. 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her compelling and important first book, documentary filmmaker Lipper recounts the difficult lives of six teenage mothers in economically depressed Pittsfield, Mass. The author, who made an award-winning film on the same subject, opens the book with a chapter on Pittsfield, once "the Plastics Technology Center of the Nation." It was plunged into stagnation when General Electric, the city's number one employer, decided in the mid-1980s to close a major division. Lipper draws a connection between the financial hardships of her protagonists' parents-which often led to depression, drug use and family conflict-and the girls' early pregnancies. At the book's core are the deeply disturbing stories of the young women themselves. Liz was physically and sexually abused as a child; Shayla's father went to prison; and Sherri's mother was addicted to cocaine. Of the teen fathers portrayed, only one is devoted to his child, while most are violent, drug-addicted, absent or some combination thereof. While each story is harrowing, the cumulative effect is even more daunting. Far from being isolated cases, these teens are adrift in a world of feckless adults, left to form opinions as Shayla does: "I thought it would bring my popularity up because people would be, like, `Hey, she's got a baby, and that's cool.' " Often the author, inserts redundant commentary. Readers hardly need to be told, for instance, that when a 13-year-old girl has sex with a series of grown men, "the reality was that they were exploiting her." At its heart, though, this book adroitly illuminates a social crisis. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Lipper, a documentary filmmaker, went to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1999 to make a film about some of the young women at the city's Teen Parent Program. Finding more than she could capture on film, she expanded her story into this book, which zeroes in on the lives and emotions of six teen mothers. The girls' stories are familiar--rebellion against parents; dead-end lives in a dying community; children, sexually assaulted at home, growing up looking for real love and validation. Interestingly, the names of Lipper's subjects weren't changed, and their words, raw and honest, were drawn directly from taped interviews and filmed conversations. Although the author might have included more about the teen program and the Shakespeare Company writing project, in which all the girls were involved, her book is, nonetheless, a revealing sociological perspective on girls "growing up fast." This deserves a spot on the shelf near Robert Coles' similarly accessible investigations of contemporary social issues. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312422229
• ISBN-13: 978-0312422226
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up Fast, January 3, 2004

By 

Sara Hathaway (Pittsfield, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Growing Up Fast (Hardcover)

Our local newspaper featured Joanna Lipper's book in a front page story titled, "For Teenage Mothers in Pittsfield, It's a Bleak Story." Yes and no.

Growing Up Fast provides a window into the lives of those girls we see pushing baby strollers along a downtown sidewalk, laying out the challenging truths that led them to become mothers, and that they continue to confront as they raise their children. The "bleak story" is not just for the six teen mothers profiled in this book, but for American children, ill-prepared or uncaring young fathers, extended families, schools, taxpayers and all of us who care about America's next generations.

I have just finished reading Random Family, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, which has to be the publishing world's equivalent of a first cousin for Growing Up Fast. I highly recommend both books, but I came to appreciate Lipper's approach in dividing her narrative into six stories. Although some stories are related, no chapter is so long and complex that one becomes overwhelmed with names and relationships and timelines. The diversity achieved by profiling six girls also allows Lipper to avoid the question, "Why Coco?" that LeBlanc notes was posed to her repeatedly about her decision to focus on one of the two principal subjects of Random Family. Lipper also provides beautiful photos that allow us to look right into the haunted eyes (as well as some moments of contentment) of these young families.

I am the Mayor of Pittsfield. Before publication of Growing Up Fast, I worried how Lipper's book would portray our City. Lipper is successful in telling the story through the words and experiences of Amy, Liz, Colleen, Shayla, Sheri and Jessica, and avoids injecting judgments of her own. I find her research is thorough and her engaging words are fair although none of our urban problems is left off the table. But mental illness, substance abuse, unemployment, domestic violence, poverty, homelessness and absentee parents are widespread problems. The Pittsfield community and all of America can learn from the stories of these young women, and from the successful programs here and in other communities that Lipper describes in her closing chapters. We owe it to these girls and to their children to do our best.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an extraodinary work, November 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Growing Up Fast (Hardcover)

This book is so naturally written you will feel like you are in the same room with the six girls whose lives it explores. By turns deeply personal and then again unflinchingly political, Joanna Lipper's probing investigative journalism reveals the hidden truths of life in Pittsfield, Massachusetts--which like hundreds of postindustrial communities all across the United States, is struggling with the fact that the jobs that were once there disappeared into thin air when the factories closed--and children are paying the price. Lipper's detailed, incisive examination of the enormous role class plays in shaping destiny and opportunity, reminds me of another writer she discusses in one section of the book, Edith Wharton, whose novel, Summer, also set in the Berkshires, is about a teen mother. Like Edith Wharton, Joanna Lipper portrays the deep, complex internal lives of young women, which are full of conflict, pathos, longing, romantic ideals, disappointments, challenges, determination, and in the end, resilience.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking!, August 21, 2004

By 

Paula L. Craig (Falls Church, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Growing Up Fast (Hardcover)

This portrait of six teen mothers in a decaying industrial town is a wonderfully thought-provoking book. The photos help with the impression of a window into their world. The interlocking influences of economic problems, environmental degradation, drug addiction, and domestic violence are all compelling in explaining their situation.
The behavior of the girls is often so idiotic as to stun the reader. Colleen's baby, for example, is fathered by Ryan. Ryan is a heroin addict who steals from Colleen and her family, and beats up Colleen many times, including an incident during her pregnancy that causes permanent injury to the baby. Society can only be thankful that Ryan spends a lot of time in jail. Yet Colleen remains faithful to Ryan for years.
One of the book's major themes is the economic decline of Pittsfield, Massachusetts after GE pulled out of the town. After GE's departure, it left behind a legacy of industrial pollution on a massive scale. While the book does not address economic questions as such, I think the Pittsfield story shows the need for the costs of pollution to be included in measures of economic growth. A large part of Pittsfield's prosperity when GE was there can only be described as an illusion. For more on this question, I would recommend the book "Beyond Growth" by Herman Daly.
Some of the policies recommended in the book strike me as naive. For example, the author concludes with a quote from Carol Gilligan (who helped with the book's preparation) that "The problem with these girls is that there is no safety net. The absence of resources really needs to be addressed." The book itself shows that this is simply not true. These girls and their babies received enormous public resources, including welfare payments, subsidized rent, subsidized day care, free medical care, social services, etc., etc. Giving a larger safety net to such girls would only encourage more teen births. This is easy to see from the book's stories on Amy and Shayla, who each went on to have a second baby out of wedlock. The others haven't had more babies yet, though given their talent for making poor choices I certainly wouldn't put it past any of them. In the long run, I think we will be better off putting more resources into birth control and pregnancy prevention, not more support for teen mothers. The book does have some good proposals on providing incentives to teen mothers not to have another child.
Some of the girls made it clear that their decision not to abort their babies was inspired by religion. The book does not follow up on this. I think the Catholic church and other churches opposed to abortion have a lot to answer for here. If they feel it is unethical to use birth control or have an abortion, that is fine with me; but I believe they must take responsibility for the results. "Abstinence-only" programs can be effective in reducing teen births, but it is harder to do than other approaches, and there is a price to be paid for that. I don't see churches willing to pay for research into establishing what programs really work, getting them implemented, and paying for the difference in cost. If a girl doesn't have an abortion because her church tells her abortion is a sin, it should be her church that supports her and her baby, not taxpayers.
Overall, the book is well written and the stories are fascinating. I had a hard time putting it down. Don't miss it!