Product Description

On the surface, Mia Tyler led a seemingly perfect life. She was a world-renowned plus-size model and the daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and seventies It girl Cyrinda Foxe. But growing up under the shadow of celebrity wasn't as glamorous as it's cracked up to be. From a poverty-stricken childhood in New Hampshire to running with troubled rich kids on Manhattan's Upper East Side, she has an incredible story to tell.

In Creating Myself, Mia shares scintillating details about her rock-and-roll family, as well as battling her own personal demons: dumping her mother's cocaine vial down the toilet at just eight years old, running around backstage at her father's concerts (including the one where she first met her sister, Liv), and attempting to distract herself from her pain through drug addiction and self-mutilation. Yet this memoir is ultimately a tale of redemption. Mia learns that in order to truly grow up, she must forgive both herself and those who hurt her, give up the quest for perfection, and acknowledge that she is still a work in progress.

Creating Myself is raw and inspirational, the tale of a hell-and-back journey from the depths of depression and addiction to triumphant self-discovery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #664609 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416558606
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and sister to actress Liv, feels she's had a difficult life. Growing up, she disliked her mother and longed for more time with her famous father. After her parents split up, she and her mother lived in New Hampshire before moving to Manhattan, where Tyler was enrolled in several fine schools—only she spent her time hanging out with her buddies getting high on pot, acid, cocaine, Ecstasy, etc. Her father intervened after she suffered a massive overdose: it paid to have a rock star for a dad, she says. Once on her feet again, Tyler was kept therapeutically busy with a lucrative offer from Lane Bryant to model clothing for plus-size teens. Months later she came to visit her mother and found her slimmer and in love. They bonded—but then her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor that proved fatal. Tyler, constantly falling in and out of love, finally realized that the point wasn't to find herself, but to create herself, a questionable insight. Not only that, she comes across as spoiled and shallow. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
This is a paean to self-acceptance and self-esteem. Initially, though, first-time author Tyler—famous as a reality-TV star, a plus-size model, and a daughter of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler—sketches a life fraught with addictions to drugs, cutting, and eating disorders. Fortunately, she gains valuable insight into her destructive patterns to re-create herself as a healthy, loving adult. For teens and twenty-somethings who can identify with Tyler's struggle.—Lynne Maxwell
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"A dishy account of growing up in a dysfunctional rock 'n' roll family."-- The Boston Globe

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful book! Bravo Mia!!
I finished this book in one day. Impossible to put down. I received it in the mail, opened the box and that was it- I read the whole darn thing.

It is so well written and it was great to finally hear the truth through a child's eyes. Her truth. Her experiences.

I've heard the story about her sister Liv in both Bebe Buell's bio "Rebel Heart" (which I LOVE) and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". I've heard all the rumors and it is lovely to put the puzzle pieces together. What a story.

I was left sobbing my eyes out in the parts about her mother Cyrinda Foxe dying of cancer. Her perspective was honest and moving.

This is such a good read. You put it down feeling good. Feeling good about yourself and others.
Not to mention the great inside stories about some rock icons.

A bit hypocritical
I agree with the previous reviewer who mentioned how harsh Mia was on her mother, while giving her father a pretty broad pass. Why couldn't she live with him? She never asked why he could go on to have a new family and not want her around? Mia was really angry about her mother's book trashing her father for money, yet she turns around and does the same thing to her mother. There are so many inconsistencies in this book. For example, she bristles when her mother suggests that she use the last name Tyler instead of her birth name of Tallarico in order to get ahead, yet she uses Tyler when writing this book. Also, although she claims that she didn't read her mother's book, she goes into some detail about it's content. She paints her as an uninvolved, unconcerned mother, but describes many instances where her mother bailed her out of school trouble. She complains that her mother didn't make anything of her life, yet her big claim to fame at the ripe old age of 30 is that she spends alot of time on Myspace. Mia barely made it through high school but somehow feels that she is qualified to me an amateur therapist. Perhaps this book is written a bit prematurely. Mia describes drinking and taking pills after leaving rehab, and we never really know if she has kicked her demons.

Disappointed in this valiant effort
I have looked forward to reading this book since I first heard about it. I know the author feels she poured out her heart and soul in an effort, I believe, to help others achieve a positive self-image without all the pain she endured. I hope she achieves success in that, since god knows there is plenty of room in this society for more self-worth. But knowing that Ms. Tyler was a plus-size model, and given the title of the book ("How I Learned that Beauty Comes in All Shapes, Sizes and Packages, Including Me"), it was my assumption that her story was one of combatting the evils of a society in which she was made to feel less worthy because of her size or appearance. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the author makes quite clear that she has absolutely no such issues: she is and has always been quite comfortable with who she is in that respect. So then what is this book really about?

I have the utmost admiration for Mia Tyler. It cannot have been easy growing up with a mostly absent rock star dad, a self absorbed and somewhat neglectful mom, and a gorgeous and incredibly talented older sister that she did not even know about until she was a pre-teen. Mia grew up in a world that prizes physical beauty and material possessions above all. Yet this young woman is mature, intelligent, funny and outspoken. One gets the distinct impression that she brought herself up and often acted the role of adult in quite a few situations she should not have had to. I enjoy her independence of spirit and her efforts to help young women with their self image and other issues. At the risk of sounding shallow, I have to say she is also a very beautiful woman, notwitstanding her so-called "plus size." But it is her beauty of spirit and independence that is truly impressive, especially given her background.

Nevertheless, I found it quite painful to read this book. The author is a woman who has abused drugs and alcohol, rehabbed, abused drugs and alcohol again, entered into destructive relationships, contemplated suicide, and mutilated herself. The huge question that begs to be answered is, "WHY?" Why would a young girl/woman who seems to have had everything: good schools, nice clothing, a father whom she admired and loved, an extended family that seemed to care for her, great friends, and the unlimited access and purchasing power provided by her father's gold card, engage in such self-destructive behavior? That question remains largely unanswered in this book. The closest we get is that Mia hated her mother, a hatred that seems to have continued until her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer a few years ago, at which point they both attempted to mend their relationship. But the pain that Mia describes started well before that sad episode. She began abusing drugs, alcohol and herself at quite a young age. And while I don't doubt her pain, I don't understand it any better having read this book.

Is this really just another tale of hedonism and excess? As a young girl, Mia had access to drugs and fame, with apparently very little supervision. She talks endlessly of her hard partying and her reckless behavior in situations she should never have been in. Because of who her father is, she was permitted free access to bars and clubs where her reckless behavior continued unabated. At the age of 18, her cocaine and other substance abuse landed her in a rehab facility, where she claimed to overcome her addictions. Shortly therafter, she began her hard partying ways again, though avoiding cocaine -- at least until the man she had married talked her into a multi-day cocaine binge. It all makes me wonder whether the pain Mia suffered led to her numbing herself with drugs, alcohol and meaningless relationships, or whether the pursuit of the next high and a life of pleasure gave rise to the emptiness and pain she so vividly describes.


Mia seems to be in a better place at the moment. She is divorced, in love again, and hard at work "creating herself": this time by way of a website in which she shares her experiences with her many myspace "friends" who feel they have learned from her struggles. That better place may be the real reason this book was written. Somehow though, I don't think she has really succeeded in "creating herself" or in learning many of life's hard lessons. I don't think that we have heard the end of Mia's struggles. I wish her happiness: we all deserve that. But I would hold off on reading the story until the sequel comes out.