No Small Feat

In the U.S., women are constantly told to shrink—shrink their ambitions, shrink their age, shrink their bodies.

Black women face this perhaps most of all. In Big Girl, the acclaimed debut novel from Mecca Jamilah Sullivan ’03, 8-year-old Malaya “dares to defy the compulsion to shrink,” as reviewer Janet Mock writes, “and in turn teaches us to pursue our fullest, most desirous selves without shame.” Malaya does this while enduring the scorn of classmates, the harassment of her grandmother, and the disgust of her best friend. She builds herself up on the strength of Harlem’s streets, the beats of Biggie Smalls, and the wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston, who said, “A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.”

BIG GIRL
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan ’03
Liveright, 2022

This story appears as part of the Smithies Create column in the Fall 2022 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photograph by Kathryn Raines