The memoir, No Lifeguard On Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel, by Janice Dickinson, is a touching and thoughtful read.
In the beginning, Janice tells her readers about life growing up in Hollywood, FL and what it was like living under a father who was sexually and mentally abusive to her and her older sister Alexis. Janice’s mother went to work every day as she was a nurse, and would come home obviously on drugs that kept her oblivious and numb to everything that was going on with the two eldest daughters.
Without her mother’s support, Janice’s oldest sister not wanting to talk about what their father was doing to her, and their youngest sister, Debbie, not having a clue their father was anything but ideal, Janice fought most of her life trying to deal with her father even after she moved out of the house and began modeling. Her father treated Janice very poorly for ever refusing him certain pleasures and told her she would, “…never amount to anything”.
That one line, stuck with Janice and was enough to define and destroy most of the relationships, including a few marriages, she had had. Janice didn’t fall for the nice guy that treated her well. Something always seemed missing for her in those kinds of relationships. Instead she chose the guys that treated her like her father would in hopes of some way being able to fix the situation. She went from one guy to the next wondering what was wrong with her and why she couldn’t keep a man. Didn’t they love her?
Throughout the book, Janice takes the reader inside her life’s struggles and her fight to free herself from her painful childhood and the destructive path she was on.
No Lifeguard On Duty is an inspiring read that shows no matter how grim life may be, you have the power to change it for the better.
Reference:
- Janice Dickinson
