Selma Blair Announces New Memoir ‘Mean Baby’
Selma Blair, the actress and advocate, will become a published author in April 2022. Blair’s memoir is titled, Mean Baby.
On December 2, Selma Blair took to Instagram to reveal her latest project: writing a book based on her life experiences. She shared the book’s cover photo, a stunning image taken in 1999 by Peggy Sirota. The Mean Baby photo features a teardrop resting on Blair’s face with the words “A Memoir of Growing Up” inside.
The actress shared an anecdote about the memoir’s title, writing, “My mother always laughed when retelling the story of how the older neighborhood kids ran from our long ranch house at the end of the cul de sac. “Don’t go in there!!!” Was the shocked cry. “The Beitner’s have a mean baby.” I was proud I could send older kids scrambling never to visit again.”
As Blair says, this “mean girl” image is something she certainly lived up to. This followed her in her acting career, most notably playing the iconic role of Vivian Kensington opposite Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. She also starred in the cult classic film, Cruel Intentions opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar. However, this image can only last so long. She sums up the memoir writing, “I lived up to my name. And then I grew up, grieved a life I felt a stranger in, and then I started to change. I had a child of my own. I floundered and had small but major successes. And I kept writing. Until my hands wouldn’t cooperate.”
Blair’s difficulties when writing her memoir had been exacerbated by her MS diagnosis. She has been living with multiple sclerosis since August 2018, and she has effortlessly stepped into the role as an advocate for those with disabilities. She has chronicled every moment of her diagnosis, and fans have been nothing short of inspired. In 2019, the actress had a life-saving stem cell transplant, significantly helping her mobility. She credits the procedure to allow her to have a new life. She currently shared her documentary, Introducing Selma Blair, which was met with critical acclaim.
Jennifer Jackson, the vice president and executive editor at Knopf, gives a shining review of Blair’s beautiful book. She reveals, “Mean Baby is one of the most honest, resonant, and empathetic portraits of an artist, daughter, mother, and addict that I’ve ever read. From the first pages of her proposal, I felt certain that her writing belonged on our list. What I did not realize, until the day Selma delivered the final manuscript, was how her passion for literature, her love of Didion and Carver and Plath, would be interwoven in the text. The result is a raw, searching, deeply humane memoir, and a gorgeously wrought story of a fearless woman.”
We could not be more excited to read Selma Blair’s memoir, Mean Baby in 2022. Get ready to be inspired and be sure to pre-order the memoir at select bookstores.
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