I’ve been asked more times than I can count, “aren’t you afraid your children will read your book?” Children matter, and parenting matters, and mothers are still women with needs of their own. Not writing about it seemed to nullify its significance. Yet, raising children has been the single most important thing in my life. At the very beginning of my writing career I sat in a memoir workshop and listened to writers argue about the ethics of writing about children. Memoir is a hard beast for family to live with just ask my mother. At times humorous and pithy while cringe-worthy and heartbreaking at others, Girlish is a human story that challenges readers to reevaluate their own lives and motivations.I wrote in the beginning of Mama, Mama, Only Mama , Lillibridge bravely tells her own story and offers a unique perspective.

Raised to be a free spirit by norm-defying parents, Girl has to define her own boundaries as she tries to fit into heteronormative suburban life, all while navigating her mother's expectations, her stepmother's mental illness, and her father's serial divorces.

Girl and her brother travel four thousand miles-unaccompanied-to visit their father in rural Alaska, where they sleep in a locked cabin without running water, telephone, or electricity.

She goes skinny dipping on family vacations in upstate New York and kisses all the boys at church. In the early years, Girl's feminist mother reluctantly allows her to play with her favorite Barbies while her stepmother refuses to comfort her when she wakes up from nightmares. It won't be long before readers realize that 'unconventional' barely scratches the surface. Personally less concerned with her mother's sexuality and more with how she fits into a world both disturbed and obsessed with it, Girl finds that, in other people's eyes, 'The most interesting thing about me is not about me at all it is about my parents.' Told from the perspective of 'Girl,' Lillibridge's memoir is the no-holds-barred account of childhood in an atypical household. 'The story everyone wants to hear isn't the story I want to tell.' Lara Lillibridge grew up with two moms-an experience that shaped and scarred her at the same time. ***Award-Winning Finalist, 2018 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest, LGBTQ Non-Fiction category***Īn honest, unfiltered memoir about a girl with an unconventional family. ***Finalist, 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, LGBT Adult Nonfiction category***

Girlish by Lara Lillibridge