Synopses & Reviews
andnbsp;Drunk and high, holed up in a hotel room with a beautiful blonde she barely knew, Jennie Ketcham was thirty-six hours away from entering rehab. Her on-camera alter ego, Penny Flame, was a rising star. Her personal life, however, had been getting worse for years and finally hit an all-time low. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Guys are gonna want one thing from you. andlt;/Iandgt;To Jennieand#8217;s young ears, her fatherand#8217;s advice meant one thing: andlt;Iandgt;You can use your sexuality to control men. andlt;/Iandgt;Life was imploding around her: her parentsand#8217; divorce, their spiraling addictions, her deteriorating relationships with them. She lost her virginity at thirteen and began a game of initiating boys her age into manhood. For the fleeting moments she spent in bed with them, she got to be the center of attention. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Eventually, Jennie found pornand#8212;that enticing world of immediate gratification, endless drugs, and seemingly endless moneyand#8212;and became Penny Flame. Divorced from her feelings, tempted into a lifestyle she couldnand#8217;t afford, financially or emotionally, she entered andlt;Iandgt;Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew andlt;/Iandgt;to boost her career. But when Dr. Drew and his staff insisted she go by her real name, the once indestructible walls she had built around herself began to burn down. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Two stories make up this direct and disarming memoir: that of a troubled girl desperately fleeing intimacy and herself, and that of a woman courageously breaking down emotional barriers to build a new life. Many will recognize Jennieand#8217;s struggles: confusing sex with self-worth, addiction with love, detachment with strength. Ultimately, andlt;Iandgt;I Am Jennie andlt;/Iandgt;is a tale of a woman who considers herself a work in progress but who finally understands that the only person she can truly afford to be is herself. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;*** andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andnbsp;I had never allowed myself to wonder why i ran from people, from connection, from what Dr. Drew was labeling as intimacy. I had never questioned why I habitually hurt the men I dated, or the people in my family. I had never thought: andlt;Iandgt;Jennie, why are you doing this? andlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;In the past, I had simply acted, and then moved forward. If I felt like crying, I shut the emotions down. This quality made me a good porn star. But it suddenly didnand#8217;t seem like a great way to live. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;and#8220;Itand#8217;s a wall,and#8221; I whispered. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;and#8220;What do you think is behind that wall?and#8221; Dr. Drew said. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;He looked directly in my eyes. The thought of something existing behind this impenetrable wall was horrifying, exhausting. I grabbed a Kleenex, thinking if I could make the perfect triangle, I could dab my inner eyes without disrupting the glue that held my fake eyelashes in place. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;and#8220;Hopefully, a caring, sensitive person who can have meaningful relationships,and#8221; I said.
Synopsis
Former porn star, reality TV personality, and blogger Jennie Ketcham presents a strikingly honest, disarming memoir about her descent into the emotionally numbing world of pornography and addiction and her path toward recovery.Jennie Ketcham pulls back the curtain on sex addiction from a uniquely female perspective, tracing her descent into pornography and addiction to sex, drugs, and alcohol. Her interpretation of her dad’s warning that “guys only want one thing” to mean “if you use your sexuality creatively, you can take over the world and own all the men therein,” combined with the trauma of her parents’ marriage unraveling, led her to lose her virginity at thirteen. By eighteen, she was nude modeling, and, as her increasing involvement with pornography began to take its toll on her relationships, she thrust herself further into the enticing world of immediate gratification. Eventually, she was participating in hardcore shoots and answering only to the name Penny Flame.
When Penny entered Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew to drum up publicity for the porn Webcam studio she managed, she encountered what she least expected: The beginning of her road to recovery. Now, Penny Flame is Jennie once more—she is back in school, in a committed relationship, and has reconnected with her father. As two stories converged, that of a troubled young woman who flees intimacy and that of a woman breaking down emotional barriers and building a new life, I Am Jennie is a poignant and honest memoir, and an eye-opening account of sex addiction and the toll it can take on women.
About the Author
andlt;Bandgt;Jennie Ketcham andlt;/Bandgt;is a reality TV star, blogger, and former pornographic actress and film director under the name of Penny Flame.