First of all, I must admit that the yearbook concept came from the author (who was, coincidentally, my college photography teacher). I had three goals for the design of the cover: to suggest a series of personal narratives, but not those of the four women pictured; to clearly articulate the era of the book, without lapsing into nostalgic kitsch; and to clarify that this book is set in the present, and that the histories are recounted with all the benefits of hindsight. My approach was to crop the image aggressively, but soften that effect with understated type and a gray shadow. The shadow underscores the idea that the cover depicts a page of an actual yearbook, so the image reads as documentation, not illustration. I designed the type as simply as possible to avoid sensationalizing the subject. The publisher and I initially disagreed over the gap between the subtitle and author's name, but thankfully the publisher came around to my argument that it represented, in a dignified way, the extended absence these women were forced to endure.