Volume V Issue I

*NOTE:This book deals with very sensitive topics such as abuse, assault, and an eating disorder.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy is a harsh and raw telling of McCurdy’s own life story. The book takes you from her childhood when she started acting to adulthood where she is facing the effects of her stardom. McCurdy gets real about how being a child actor and growing up was terrifying for her, so she turned to calorie restriction, controlled entirely by her mother, to keep herself looking extremely young and childlike. McCurdy also details how her mother would shower her until she was 16 years old and how her mother would control everything she said, who she was allowed to be near, and what she looked like for years. She tells everything about the later years leading up to her mother’s passing, as well as the trauma that came after.

I’m Glad My Mom Died was a very hard book to read through. I had to break the book up into small chunks of content so as to not make myself feel uncomfortable about what I was reading. However, that discomfort is what the world needs in regards to child stardom. This book was real and an honest look into how something as normalized as childhood acting can be traumatic. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the life of child stars, but be warned that this book deals with very sensitive topics.