Synopses & Reviews
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.
Joanna Lipper graduated from Harvard. She holds an M.Sc. in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology from University College London and the Anna Freud Centre. For her first documentary, Inside Out: Portraits of Children, she received the Hollywood Discovery Award. Her second documentary, Growing Up Fast, was distinguished by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of the outstanding short documentaries of 1999. Joanna Lipper currently lives in New York City, where she runs Ruby Slipper Productions. Growing Up Fast is her first book. Visit the author and photo galleries featuring the subjects of her book at www.growingupfast.com.
Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of Amy, Liz, Collen, Shayla, Sheri, and Jessica--six teen mothers whom Joanna Lipper first met in 1999 when they were all enrolled in 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 describing young women burdened by fates they did not choose.
Less than a decade older than these teen parents, Joanne 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 of growing up in the economically depressed postindustrial landscape of Pittsfield.
What Growing Up Fast makes] perfectly clear is that becoming a teen mother poses an enormous challenge, even for the most determined. The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers profiled in these pages] explain, had they known what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path.--Katherine S. Newman, The Washington Post
Lipper, an accomplished documentary filmmaker, takes a close look at the desolate landscape of family life in Pittsfield, Mass., once 'inextricably intertwined' with General Electric, now an economic wasteland with few decent jobs to offer. She zeros in on the lives of six teenage mothers, some single, some divorced, and some temporarily 'hooked up' with unreliable or unsavory men, the teen fathers of their babies or the next boyfriend in line. The narrative focuses on their lives as daughters in families that range from the solid to the dysfunctional; these are teenagers who crave attention and thrills, and those desires get them into trouble that lasts a lifetime . . . Lipper's portrait of each of these teenage mothers is sympathetic but clear-eyed. Their stories unfold slowly and patiently, confronting the reader with a litany of violent relationships, desperate desires for affection and social status, and romantic longings that lead almost inexorably to out-of-wedlock motherhood. In an economy in which only the well-educated will garner jobs good enough to support a family, Lipper's young moms have practically no chance to overcome their early mistakes . . . Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book . . . What Growing Up Fast makes] perfectly clear is that becoming a teen mother poses an enormous challenge, even for the most determined. The 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.--Katherine S. Newman, The Washington Post
A searing, heart-rending account . . . In their own words, the girls describe home lives from hell, full of drug addiction and physical and sexual abuse, presided over by parents who are, with rare exceptions, hopelessly unfit. The girls' lives are often said to be 'empty, ' and they are: of positive interests or role models. But they are full of violence and hypersexualized media that make teen motherhood look to them more like a solution than the difficult challenge it inevitably is. 'I wanted a baby so I'd have a friend 24 hours a day, ' one mother told Lipper . . . A strong argument for better state funding of teen pregnancy prevention programs that have seen cuts in recent state budgets. Somebody--an art teacher, a basketball coach, a pastor, a therapist--has t
Review
"...a haunting testament to the vast, unfinished business of the abandonment of the working class....This is a necessary, enraging work."(Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble & Coming of)
Review
"Lipper has actually conveyed the social_and_personal history of a growing class...for whom there is little help and less hope."(Martin Peretz, The New Republic)
Review
"In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating... Lipper has mastered all of the relevant data. She has also mastered the scholarship on teens, on teen families, on children of these families, on the families from which these mothers come... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers."
- Martin Peretz, The New Republic
"Growing Up Fast is a haunting testament to the vast, unfinished business of the abandonment of the working class and the resulting trauma that continues destroying lives. Joanna Lipper takes on the hard task of real listening to the young women who carry on, and she honors their predicament by rigorously setting out the complex context of their lives. This is necessary, enraging work. We're very lucky to have it."Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble & Coming of Age in the Bronx
"Writing in the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio, Joanna Lipper takes us into Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Growing Up Fast is an astonishing book combining arresting portraits of mothers and fathers who are themselves children with a devastating depiction of a community living on the edge of economic despair." --Carol Gilligan
"Joanna Lipper's book works as a literary representation of the film 8 Mile. Like the hit movie, Lipper’s investigation of the young white working class in a burnt-out, post-industrial, rust belt city portrays lives of a not-so-quiet desperation." --Nelson George, author of Hip-Hop America
Review
"Poor people, poor mothers and their children, their men-folk and fathers, want lives different than those they have been dealt. It is hard to imagine an American politics that will help them get it. Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers." Martin Peretz, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 405-417).
Synopsis
Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of Shayla, Jessica, Amy, Colleen, Liz, and Sheri--six teen mothers whom Joanna Lipper first met in 1999 when they were enrolled at the Teen Parent Program in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Less than a decade older than these teen parents, she was able to blend into the fabric of their lives and make a short documentary film about them. Over the course of the next four years she continued to earn 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, Massachusetts.
About the Author
Joanna Lipper holds an M.Sc in psychoanalytic developmental psychology. For her first documentary,
Inside Out: Portraits of Children, she received the Hollywood Discovery Award. Her second documentary,
Growing Up Fast, was distinguished as one of the outstanding short documentaries of 1999 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. Joanna lives in New York City, where she runs Ruby Slipper Productions. Growing Up Fast is her first book.
Table of Contents
Pittsfield -- Amy & Bernard -- Liz & Peter -- Colleen -- Shayla & C.J. -- Sheri -- Jessica -- Community.