Why you should read Jennette McCurdy’s memoir if you haven’t done so

Yes – I’m talking about that memoir titled I’m Glad My Mom Died.

Honestly, I read it two days after it came out. I’m not the biggest reader but I love a good autobiography or biography – and this is that. I must note that in my line of business, I also love watching documentaries and reading news on pop culture, entertainment, and media. I knew a bit of what I was getting into, but this was something else.

I’m Glad My Mom Died is a poignant portrayal of grief, forgiveness, regret, and resurgence by Nickelodeon child star Jennette McCurdy. McCurdy is known for her days on Nickelodeon’s iCarly and the short-lived spinoff Sam and Cat. She was one of many child stars in the early 2010s set for stardom outside of child television. However, it was a career she never wanted.

Although McCurdy has been public about her experience as a child star before – having toured a one-woman show with the same name and having written columns – she has never gone as depth or received as much attention about it (she’s already a New York Times Best Seller).

While her mother died from cancer in 2013, the book is divided into a “before and after.” McCurdy recalls how her mother forced her – quite literally – into acting. Without giving too much, let me give you a brief preview. She remembers moments such as when she told her mother she didn’t want to act anymore and took back her emotions soon after her mother cried out in disappointment. She recalls using methods her mom told her to “lose weight” and using her progress to make her happy. And most impactfully, she recalls how the controlling nature and need to provide for her family from a young age, even after officially retiring from acting in 2017, caused her to go into years of alcoholism, therapy, and a new outlook on life.

Is the title daunting? Yes. But was it her way of overcoming childhood trauma for a new “after” chapter? Yes. And McCurdy openly speaks to this on her book cover.

When discussing the cover where she is holding a pink urn with confetti and grinning, she told Entertainment Weekly,  “confetti spilling out of an urn felt to me like a good way of capturing the humor in the tragedy, but I knew I didn’t want to go as far as throwing the confetti or jumping in the air with a huge smile on my face or doing any other kind of body language / facial expression that could read as flippant. Ultimately I chose a facial expression that I think reads as sincere, a little pained, and a little hopeful”.