Discussion Questions
You'll Grow Out of It
by Jessi Klein
- What does Jessi Klein celebrate about modern American culture, and what does she criticize? Do you agree with her ideas about what it means to be a women in the world today?
- Jessi describes herself as a tomboy who grew into a “tom man.” How did her early disconnect from conventional femininity shape her identity? What aspects of Jessi’s performance of femininity do you connect with?
- Klein writes of the pressure to have a natural birth, “When writing the experience of pregnancy and birth … No one ever asks if a man is having a ‘natural vasectomy.’” In what ways do the choices we make as women become public concerns?
- One of the book’s funniest moments comes as Klein lays out her “poodle-wolf” theory: women are poodles if they "inherently radiate femininity" (Angelina Jolie) and wolves if the effort shows (Jennifer Aniston). Are you a poodle or a wolf? Do you find this divide problematic?
- What other books have you read that, like You’ll Grow Out Of It, give voice to women’s experiences and concerns without dismissing them as trivial?