Girlhood

National Bestseller

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

A gripping set of stories about the forces that shape girls & the adults they become. A wise & brilliant guide to transforming the self & our society.

In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female & what it takes to free oneself from them.

When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions & by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she'd been told about herself & the habits & defenses she'd developed over years of trying to meet others' expectations. The values she & so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, & she set out to reframe those values & beliefs.

Blending investigative reporting, memoir, & scholarship, Febos charts how she & others like her have reimagined relationships & made room for the anger, grief, power, & pleasure women have long been taught to de@ny.

Written with Febos' characteristic precision, lyricism, & insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, & a searing study of the transitions into & away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart, the essay collection, Abandon Me, & a craft book, Body Work. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, she is also the inaugural winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary. Her essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Granta, Sewanee Review, Tin House, The Sun, & The New York Times.