Christy Carlson Romano became famous before she could protect herself. In this equally raw and inspiring memoir, the former Disney Channel star reveals her toxic rise to fame, how she lost it all, and the hard-won comeback that made her stronger and more successful than ever before.

For a generation of kids, Christy Carlson Romano was their TV big sister. At her peak, she was sixteen years old and starring in two major television shows, Even Stevens and Kim Possible, and an original movie, Cadet Kelly. She was Disney’s smart, serious girl next door, a role model who had it all together. But in reality, she was anything but.

Christy was placed into show business while still in elementary school. She wanted to be a good girl: to help her family and to make her parents happy. From indie movie gigs and Broadway performances in New York to television shoots in Hollywood, Christy’s existence was dually marked by brilliance and turmoil: bright-eyed success on the stage and emotional and financial strife behind the scenes. Christy faced a roller coaster of bullying, exploitation, and the relentless pursuit of perfection personally and professionally. And as she got older, her people pleasing tendencies took a darker turn: she dated controlling men, started partying in to order fit in, descended into addiction, and was emotionally blackmailed into giving thousands of dollars to a manipulative psychic.

But after hitting rock bottom in an FBI office, Christy pulls her life back together, reparenting herself to become more resilient than ever.

This is more than a celebrity memoir; it’s an inspiring account of raising oneself, of finding inner strength and perseverance. Punctuated by letters from Christy to her two young daughters, Once Upon a Trainwreck is a propulsive and gripping testament to survival, self-discovery, and the pursuit of an authentic life.