The book lighting the way for Black British girls: Grown

Grown touches the hearts of everyone reading it, whether it be young Black girls beginning their journey, or women like me, who only thought of one thing as we read: I wish this had been around when I was younger. 

Melissa Cummings-Quarry and Natalie A. Carter are the founders of the Black Girls’ Book Club, an important and warming resource for Black women. Just some of the authors hosted by BGBC include Malorie Blackman, Tayari Jones and Candice Carty-Williams. The club has also been featured in Vogue, Buzzfeed and  on BBC Radio to name a few. Black Girls’ Book Club is now recognised as one of the most important events in the literary calendar for Black women and girls in the UK. Grown is a fitting and well-timed extension of that space. 

As I read Grown, the thought would resurface over and again. Cummings-Quarry and Carter have accomplished an incredible feat: Grown encapsulates Black British girlhood across various incarnations and experiences. Different ideas and mindsets are beautifully interwoven as Carter and Cummings-Quarry, alongside a myriad of contributing authors, set out to answer the unanswerable and explain the previously unexplainable. This book is a clear, concise and lovingly delivered handbook for Black girls and women (young and older) everywhere. They gave a name not only to the various obstacles that Black women face, but encouraged us in the exploration of Black womanhood and exultation of our worthy, wonderful lives.

It is impossible to describe, here, the wealth of information that exists in the book. Every topic has dedicated space and patience, from securing the bag, to the ins and outs of periods, to microaggressions, to loving the skin you’re in. In summary and in the words of the authors, “Grown is our attempt to break generational curses and cycles, preventing all the baby girls from making the silly mistakes we did.” The handbook takes the reader by the hand, through thick and thin, and the webs and mires of identity.

I am on the cusp of the age group that Grown writes to, but my experience of the book has not diminished because of this fact. I read it with a retrospective eye, as someone who felt both disappointed at the lack of such a resource in my own childhood, but also one who greatly appreciated the book’s existence. Its importance cannot be understated. When it comes to accepting yourself and all of the complications and enrichments that come along with Black British femininity, Grown serves as a faithful friend, a ‘big sis’, guiding, protecting and perhaps quietly admonishing you. Despite my age, I felt the protection washing over me because of how deeply the book seemed to understand me and my experiences. No book has ever made me feel seen as this one. 

There are few negatives that I can highlight - the reading experience was enjoyable and the book’s contents were informative. Grown also has interactive elements, providing readers the opportunity to contribute to its pages in the form of affirmations, for example. Grown is a book that a woman can take with her throughout life, thumbing through the pages to see their words alongside their sisters’.

This book is the opportunity for community, for communication and for understanding for and with Black British women. No issue is off limits and in the words of the authors, Grown ‘embodies everything that makes us who we are.’