Geena Davis wrote a children’s book! It’s called The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page, and it was just released this past Tuesday. Much like Julianne Moore’s children’s book, Freckleface Strawberry, it’s about accepting yourself for who you are. As a child, Geena was much taller than her classmates, so her book is based on her own real-life experience. The story is about a little girl named Sheila who lives inside of a book. As she gets older, she grows so quickly that she doesn’t fit on the page anymore. Geena, who is six feet tall, not only wrote it, she also illustrated it, too.
To promote the book, Geena popped up on The View on Wednesday. She talked about her own experiences while growing up and hating that her height made her stand out so much. While she’s comfortable and owns her stature now, she was self conscious about it when she was younger. Her classmates teasing her about it didn’t help either. The boys in her class even gave her a special nickname: “Kareem Abdul Jabbar.”
Geena Davis has learned to embrace her height over the years, but she’s admitted it wasn’t always easy being the tallest kid in school. During an appearance on the Wednesday, April 30 episode of The View, the Thelma and Louise actress, 69, spoke about her debut children’s book, The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page, which stems from real experiences she had as a child, and the self-confidence she later learned.
Davis shared, “I was tall from minute one … I was very self-conscious and shy, and the last thing I wanted to do was stand out, and yet, every minute, I stood out.”
“So, it was really tough growing up. The boys’ nickname for me in high school was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which, you know, is so charming,” she added of kids comparing her to the former Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks basketball player who is 7-foot-2.
Davis’ book focuses on Sheila, a young girl who lives inside a book she knows people are reading. But as she grows older, she realizes that she’s growing so quickly that she no longer fits on the page, and the Beetlejuice star said that she could relate.
“This has always been a part of my life, but once I stopped growing, I became very comfortable with it and happy, and got cast in Tootsie, because it was funny to look at me and Dustin Hoffman together,” she said referencing the 1982 flick, in which she made her feature film debut as April Page alongside Hoffman’s Michael Dorsey.
Davis — who also illustrated the book, which is from Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers — also stopped by CBS Mornings on Wednesday for a chat about the release.
She noted that she finally accepted her height as an adult. “[Then] I realized that it’s okay to take up this much space. And so that’s kind of the message of the book.”
Davis shared the book’s release with PEOPLE exclusively in December, saying, “I’ve always been tall – I was a tall baby. As a kid, my fondest wish was to take up less space in the world. It was only as an adult I realized I could be all of who I was, unapologetically.”
“So I wrote this book for all of the ‘too big’ children — including children with big personalities and big dreams — who need reassurance that they can be their true selves and make their own space in the world.”
“It was a joy to write, and so wonderful to be able to illustrate my own words to bring my characters to life. I can’t wait to have it out in the world,” Davis concluded.
The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page is now available wherever books are sold.
Kids are so mean! I’m sorry that Geena went through that. I wonder if those kids ever thought about what they called her while they were watching her on screen. I think the one thing I learned as I got older was that the way someone treats you is more memorable to you than it is to them, and likewise. That goes for good and bad behavior. I’m glad Geena got to a place where she was confident in her body. Anyway, she previewed a few pages of the book for the audience and it looks really cute! My drawing skills have still not evolved past flowers and 3D shapes, so I am particularly impressed that Geena did all of the illustrations herself. That’s really cool.
The rest of the interview was fun, too. She revealed that the advice Dustin Hoffman gave her while they were filming her first ever film, Tootsie, was “Don’t ever sleep with your costars, it ruins the sexual tension.” Oh my goodness. Also, they mentioned her 2006 series, Commander In Chief, where she played a president on TV, and asked her for her thoughts on how America still hasn’t had a female president. Geena responded with a joke, ”I’m not even old enough to be a president yet.” That made me laugh out loud. Speaking of, how is she 69 years old? She looks absolutely incredible. My new goal is to look that good and write a children’s book before I’m 70.
photos credit: Judy Eddy/Wenn/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Getty
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