Bloom: Letters on Girlhood
Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a timely memoir exploring how societal expectations shape identity, and how we can continue, at any age, to release the past.
By Nicole Breit & Claire Sicherman
Published by Caitlin Press, 2025
Paperback : 9781773861692, September 2025
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A raw, searching and intimate memoir, Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a conversation between two acclaimed writers about silence and shame and what it means to come of age as young women.
Over the course of two and a half years, authors Claire Sicherman (Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation) and Nicole Breit, an award-winning poet and essayist, exchanged letters chronicling their coming-of-age in the suburbs of late 1980s Vancouver.
Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a candid memoir-in-letters in which Claire and Nicole explore the awkwardness and confusion of adolescence, delving into everything from periods, first bras and body hair to desire, sexuality and consent. As they reflect on their silent struggles as girls, women and mothers from the perspective of mid-life, the true impact of patriarchy and misogyny on their lives becomes increasingly apparent.
With unflinching honesty and insight, Bloom is a timely memoir exploring how societal expectations shape identity, and how we can continue, at any age, to release the past. Written by two feminist authors from underrepresented communities (Claire is a Jewish woman and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors; Nicole is a queer, neurodivergent writer), this memoir-in-letters will resonate with anyone who has ever asked themselves: Who was I taught to be? And who do I want to become?
Reviews
Hilarious, heartbreaking, intimate, and authentic, Bloom is the conversation you wish you could have risked with your best friend back when you were 13, 15, 17, or 21 — except back then, you didn’t have the insight or the words. Read this book, muse on it, revel in it, share it. Feel your heart unfold along with its stories.
—Susan Olding, author of Big Reader
Bloom is a powerful new addition to the growing list of books that help us understand who we are, especially as women. Through the nostalgic, tender act of letter writing between two powerfully self-aware women, Bloom becomes a balm: fluid, nourishing, and intuitive. Their combined voice reads like a sixth sense—a space where our inner voice is finally safe to ask questions we’ve held onto for a lifetime. In a world where shame and silence crash over us like relentless waves, Bloom offers something rare: a place to pause, reflect, and simply be. Nicole and Claire remind us that identity is never fixed, that our past holds wisdom, and that becoming more is always within reach. Rooted in body wisdom and a fierce desire to grow, Bloom is the calm, grounding guide we all need when navigating life’s biggest transitions because it essentially leads us back to ourselves. Bloom is a book I will come back to again and again.
—Chelene Knight, award-winning author of Dear Current Occupant, Junie, and Let It Go: Free Yourself From Old Beliefs and Find a New Path To Joy
A series of letters between friends evolves into a conversation about how difficult girlhood can be when barraged by societal and familial pressures. Both authors delve into those difficult years, when girls and young women become estranged from themselves. Be silent. Stay small. Be ignorant of your sexuality. Be a giver with no hope of reciprocity. The loss and grief of girlhood are palpable throughout these letters. But there is hope. A move to take charge and bloom into the women they were meant to be. This book resonated with me in profound ways. I highly recommend it.
—Rowan McCandless, finalist for the Governor General's Award in nonfiction with Persephone's Children, CNF editor with The Fiddlehead, First Vice Chair with The Writers' Union of Canada
Bloom - Letters on Girlhood is the tome I wish I had at my bedside as a teenager. Imagine having your best friend hold your hand through ever scary, exciting or overwhelming moment of transition in your life, and this is Bloom. In an intimate, unique epistolary style, Claire & Nicole keep us company as we cross the thresholds of life in their loving company. This book is truly a delight. I wish I’d had it years ago!
—Heather Hendrie, the bestselling author of Awfully Hilarious: Stories We Never Tell and Awfully Hilarious: Period Pieces
Bloom: Letters on Girlhood is a gorgeous meditation on growing up female. As I read, I was transported back in time; it felt as though I was watching home movies in my best friend’s basement rec room. I am in awe of the beauty, humour, and insight Claire Sicherman and Nicole Breit have brought to their tender letters, and grateful for their generosity in sharing their lives. It is a pleasure to experience their brilliant conversations and to witness these two astonishing writers arrive in their full power as the people they are today.
—Doretta Lau, author of How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?