Paperback, ebook, or audiobook available online. Or get a book personalized and signed by Lisa!
Details below on ordering
“Jakub offers us an endearing look at a layer of the entertainment business we never even knew was there. With elegant prose we’re allowed access to the human side of an industry that so often seems to lack humanity.”
– Jacob Tomsky, bestselling author of “Heads in Beds.”
Signed/ personalized copies available now!
At the age of twenty-two, Lisa Jakub had what she was supposed to want: she was a working actor in Los Angeles.
She had more than forty movies and TV shows to her name, she had been in blockbusters like Mrs. Doubtfire and Independence Day, she walked the red carpet and lived in the house she bought when she was fifteen.
But something was missing.
Passion.
Purpose.
Happiness.
Lisa had been working since the age of four, after a man approached her parents at a farmer’s market and asked her to audition for a commercial. That chance encounter dictated the next eighteen years of her unusual – and frequently awkward – life. She met Princess Diana…and almost fell on her while attempting to curtsy. She filmed in exciting locations…and her high school asked her not to come back. She went to fancy parties…and got kind of kidnapped that one time. Success was complicated.
Making movies, traveling the world and meeting intriguing people was fun for a while, but Lisa eventually realized she was living a life based on momentum and definitions of success that were not her own. She battled severe anxiety and panic attacks while feeling like she was living someone else’s dream. Not wanting to become a child actor stereotype, Lisa retired from acting and left L.A. in search of a path that felt more authentic to her.
In this funny and insightful book, Lisa chronicles the adventures of growing up in the film industry and her difficult decision to leave behind the only life she had ever known, to examine her priorities and write the script for her own life. She explores the universal question we all ask ourselves: what do I want to be when I grow up?
![Lisa on set dressed as a princess reading a book](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282498441-JH274JDC4JT7JKI30VVJ/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.01.09+PM.png)
![Lisa producing a short film, wearing headset](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282501318-69EXSBNW8J7LKEAFQFMW/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.01.01+PM.png)
![Lisa at age four acting in a Cottonelle commercial.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282503357-Y8MKV14DXQRRM4RMV7F3/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.00.53+PM.png)
![A contact sheet for Lisa's headshots when she was about 9 years old.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282509675-24E04GR6RWMWS3RWXO48/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.00.38+PM.png)
![Publicity shot from Matinee, Simon Fenton with his arm around Lisa](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282510961-ENYLZU7GSOVX3X387QMK/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.00.27+PM.png)
![Lisa in an advertisement for soup, age four](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532282513428-8OZ1MLNN7AP4J8D0E8PH/Screen+Shot+2018-07-22+at+2.00.17+PM.png)
![The kid cast of Mrs. Doubtfire, Mara Wilson, Matt Lawrence, and Lisa, all hugging](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355194606-PQ1MMNS6FWUI4BSYCZSM/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.12.38+AM.png)
![Photo from Independence Day, Lisa walks towards camera looking amazed.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355194659-ZDB5VEGXV9QONJT5OUI7/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.11.38+AM.png)
![From the premiere of Mrs. Doubfire. Lisa stands with Mara Wilson and Matt Lawrence. They are all holding hands.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355195868-5303J6HQ2XDS3WW2B3CI/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.10.14+AM.png)
![Lisa in the TV movie Dream House. Wearing a tank top and green necklace.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355196791-P387F5V6O9XJDJKKCU26/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.09.46+AM.png)
![Lisa Jakub and Robin Williams from Mrs. Doubtfire. Lisa looks upset, Robin touches her face.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355197100-SLPECB577C0O0FNAWEBA/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.09.20+AM.png)
![From George Lucas in Love. Lisa smiles while wearing a yellow top, and hair buns like Princess Leia](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355200286-4CBBJSBNHKJTHF8GFPUF/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.09.04+AM.png)
![A trading card with some of the actors from Independence Day](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355201314-VDRN1YFZYQH258I7GJLZ/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.08.52+AM.png)
![Lisa Jakub touches Robin William's face, as he is dresses as Mrs. Doubtfire.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355201665-OGY2CWTM2ZP5XG1RH981/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.08.27+AM.png)
![Lisa Jakub meets Princess Diana and curtseys, as they both smile.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b5257b925bf020dc425d238/1532355202621-WGO3MP4T12CFW6WVR69V/Screen+Shot+2018-07-23+at+10.08.12+AM.png)