Actress Elizabeth “Betty” Gilpin (GLOW, The Hunt) has written a memoir about her time in the troubled teen industry called ‘Stolen,’ which I only learnt about yesterday. This morning I purchased the audiobook and listened to the entire thing.
At 15, Elizabeth was an honour student, a state ranked swimmer, and a rising soccer star, but her undiagnosed depression was wrecking havoc on her life. Growing angrier by the day, she started skipping practice and drinking. At a loss, her parents, under guidance, enrolled her in a behavioural modification program and then a “therapeutic” boarding school.
Stolen recounts the terror of being kidnapped from your own bed in the middle of the night as your parents watched on silently, and the psychological manipulation and trauma that followed. Elizabeth writes with unflinching honesty about the horrors she endured, the friends she lost to suicide and addiction, and how she tried to overcome what had happened to her.
On her Instagram account, Elizabeth revealed that it took almost 2 weeks to record the audiobook because she kept getting angry and crying too much for her voice to be clear. She had to re-record multiple parts. Her emotion is extremely evident in the audiobook and it’s obvious where some parts were re-recorded, but this only adds to the heartbreaking experience.
Since learning more about the troubled teen industry from people like Paris Hilton, I’ve been completely shattered by it. I desperately wanted to read Elizabeth’s account and I’m so glad I did. In addition to raising awareness, it seems Elizabeth wrote this book as a means of catharsis, but mainly to let those with similar experiences know that they aren’t alone. They are survivors.
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