Hardback: In this remarkable memoir - written with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger during her pivotal first years of rebirth - Caitlyn Jenner reflects on her past as she looks to her future.
"The juxtaposition of Bruce and Caitlyn is shocking even to me. How could one become the other and the other become the one? I know that Caitlyn was my gender at birth, waiting for the right moment to subsume Bruce. Imagine defying your core and soul. Then add to it he most impossible expectations that people have for you because you are the personification of The American Male Athlete."
Bruce Jenner, the celebrated Olympic icon and later the patriarch of one of the most famous families in the world, seemed to be living a dream life of success, fame, and prosperity. But the all-American image and million-dollar smile belied a lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria, and it was not until the sensational Diane Sawyer interview that the public mask of Bruce Jenner was finally retired, and through the memorable Vanity Fair piece by Buzz Bissinger, that Caitlyn Jenner was introduced to the world and set free to exist on her own terms. Since then, Caitlyn has undertaken an arduous emotional and physical odyssey to achieve the completeness she always felt was missing.
In The Secrets of My Life (2017), Caitlyn reflects on the inner conflict she experienced growing up in an era of rigidly defined gender identities, and the cruel irony of being hailed by an entire nation as the ultimate symbol of manhood. She recounts her Olympic triumph, her rise to fame, and relates how her sense of frustration and shame grew with the passing years and the lengths to which she had to go to conceal her true self. Caitlyn in turn uncovers the toll that these personal struggles had on her three marriages and, subsequently, the relationships with her children. She also talks candidly about her life in the public eye as a member of the Kardashian clan, what led to her decision to become Caitlyn, and how she, her family, the transgender community, and the rest of the world has since embraced her new life.
Filled with incredibly personal and moving stories of struggle and victory, of anxiety and fear, and, finally, of surrender and acceptance, The Secrets of My Life reveals the real Caitlyn Jenner by tracing her long and eventful journey to becoming herself.
About the authors: Caitlyn Jenner broke the work record in the decathlon by scoring 8634 points at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. She subsequently became a broadcaster for ABC and NBC, regularly appeared on Good Morning America, and became one of the country's most-sought-after inspirational speakers in detailing her remarkable Olympic success.
Since revealing her true self, Caitlyn executive-produced I Am Cait, the award-winning series on E! hailed for raising public awareness of transgender issues. She was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the Year in 2015, honoured as one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year, and received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2015 ESPY Awards for her transition from Olympic athlete to transgender activist.
Buzz Bissinger is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of the iconic Friday Night Lights. His other nonfiction books include A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in August, and Father's Day. He has been a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair and wrote the magazine's landmark cover story on Caitlyn for the July 2015 issue. He is also a professor of nonfiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
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