Other People's Mothers

A nostalgic and poignant coming-of-age story told through one young woman’s relationships with the mother figures in her life

Relationships between mothers and daughters can often be complicated and fraught. Even in the best of circumstances, many of us may have grown up curious about the mothers of our friends—looking to them, learning from them (for better or for worse), and wondering what it would be like to be a part of their families.

Other People’s Mothers is a collection of interconnected, autobiographical essays that explore the relationship between a daughter, her mother, and the other mothers present in their lives. In this coming-of-age memoir, Julie Marie Wade traces a nexus of female influences on her formative years in the ’80s and ’90s. Through words and actions, the women around her communicate powerful and often contradictory messages about class, religion, education, and morality, holding enormous power over Wade’s journey toward adulthood.

In expanding her exploration of motherhood and daughterhood to include these “other mothers,” Wade takes a new and surprising kaleidoscopic approach to her portrayals of family life. This book reveals a young woman in the late twentieth century grappling with gendered expectations, beauty and body ideals, and complex messages about who she is permitted—or destined—to become.