There’s a tragic story behind almost every Nickelodeon cast member. Several actors from Dan Schneider shows such as Zoey 101, Victorious, and iCarly have spoken out about their bad experiences with the network. Still, no story is quite as tragic as that of Jennette McCurdy.
Last month, she released her memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died”, which detailed the pressure she was placed under by her mother and the network to be someone that she was not. This led to her having severe eating disorders well into her adult life.
If you don’t think the heavy topics associated with the book would be too sensitive for you, I highly recommend this. I read the whole thing over the course of two days, transfixed. I couldn’t put it down.
It is such an essential read because we would never know that these things were happening if we didn’t get books like these. I was one of the many teenagers that grew up watching iCarly and Sam and Cat and I never realised that anything was wrong. I didn’t know that anything was wrong at all until she revealed that she had suffered from eating disorders just a few years ago.
McCurdy has such an impressive way of telling her story. She tells it in such a way that you are under no false impressions. When she is discussing her life as a child, you are hyper-aware that she is too young to be dealing with the things she is going through. You will probably catch on to her mother’s abusive behaviour a few minutes into the book, but you will understand why she didn’t. It is heartbreaking to watch her come to that realisation through her writing.
Read this book so that you develop a skepticism that you can’t shake. Read it so that you can’t naively watch children’s tv and assume that everything is fine and the children are being treated fairly. If we all demanded a higher standard for child actors, then Jennette’s story may not be repeated.
I give this book 5 stars -although it feels weird giving a star rating to someone’s life story. Instead, I am giving 5 stars to Jennette McCurdy for telling this story and advocating for others in her position. It spreads an important message that you don’t have to be loyal to anyone regardless of if they’re family or if you owe them your career.
Thank you for reading, as always. This post is day 3 of a 30-Day Writing Challenge that you can find by clicking on the link or by looking at the pinnable image below.
Amber x
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Unequivocally Amber 