True You – Janet Jackson, David Ritz

I’m just Janet. I have strengths, weaknesses, fears, happiness, sadness. I experience joy and I experience pain. I’m highly emotional. I’m very vulnerable. And, as anyone who knows me will testify, I’m extremely sensitive. I have lifelong patterns of behaviour that have caused me difficulty – patterns tough to break. Like everyone, I have talents, but with those talents have come challenges.

This book is about meeting the challenges that face all of us.

For more than three decades, I’ve struggled with yo-yo dieting. Some of my battles with weight have been very public. But most of it has been internal. Even at my thinnest, when my body was being praised, I wasn’t happy with what I saw or how I felt about myself.

Infused with stories from fans and friends, Janet offers a candid look into the causes and circumstances behind some of her well-documented weight issues. Far more than a celebrity fitness manifesto, this book is a searingly honest account of the most tumultuous times of her life – from being taunted as a young girl to her internal battles with her beauty and femininity and her desire to fit in.

It has taken Janet most of her adult life to come to terms with who she is.True You illuminates the path Janet took in learning how to love herself and finally break free of the attitudes that brought her down.