Worthy

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who also created the Red Table Talk series, tells her own life story in a direct, conversational voice. She notes that public figures often have their lives narrated for them by a media culture quick to attach stories and identities, and here she takes back the pen. Her early years in Baltimore followed a path that did not match typical expectations. Her later life brought her into a marriage with Will Smith, one of the most famous men in the world. Rather than fitting the conventional roles expected of a woman in her position, she describes choosing a different course. Throughout the book she traces how she came to see herself as a woman with real power, and how she came to understand that a firm sense of self is something every woman is entitled to, and that it can serve as her protection. She sets aside the labels other people placed on her and rewrites her story around self-acceptance. The memoir aims to inform as well as to reveal. Ultimately, the book introduces readers to who she is and offers a model for embracing their own authentic and worthy selves.