Getting through it with Chelsea Devantez

By Maggie Block

I was out of town, staying with my friend Julie as she recovered from surgery, to help with her baby. We didn’t think too much of the baby being sick, babies throw up for all kinds of reasons. Maybe grandma shouldn’t have just washed off those raspberries when she saw the mold…

Then one night, I started feeling kind of nauseous. I tried to deny it- it was better when I laid on my back! Deep breaths helped!- But eventually I had to acknowledge that I, myself, had gotten sick.

I do not remember the last time I was that sick.

I’ll spare you the details, but I did not sleep that night. And felt absolutely miserable the next day, looking at screens only made it worse- so the time honored tradition of watching tv until I felt better, was out. My only comfort was listening to the audiobook of Chelsea Devantez’s memoir, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: But I’m Going to Anyways.

I discovered Devantez through her podcast, Glamorous Trash, where in every episode Chelsea and her guest recap a celebrity memoir they read. For Hinton’s more refined fans this may sound frivolous, and of course at times it’s silly, and naturally the celebrities say and believe absurd things. But the way Chelsea and her guests converse about the book is always a true delight. Never shying a way from discussing sexism or racism, reading between the lines to expose the juiciest drama, and just generally being hilarious and thoughtful. I am a full blown “cookie” (a fan of Devantez and Glamorous Trash)!

I was bummed that I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This came out during my trip, as I wasn’t going to have the same time to read, and I wanted to get through it immediately. And then suddenly I was incapacitated, unable to do much of anything besides listening to her voice.

It did not disappoint.

The book opens and closes with so many lines of text blacked out you’d think it was a classified government document begrudgingly released under FOIA, not a comedy writer’s memoir.

Chelsea wrote about surviving domestic abuse at the beginning and end of her book, and her publisher’s lawyers wouldn’t allow her words to be printed. The book structurally didn’t work without it’s beginning and end, and Chelsea wanted to be able to tell her true story. She considered not publishing. But her husband had another idea, blacking out the sections the lawyers wouldn’t allow. Leaving in enough for us to figure it out, and having the blacked out sections stand as a testament to the story Chelsea wasn’t allowed to tell.

And Chelsea has such an important story to tell. She tells the story of generations of women growing up in poverty, and needing to rely on each other to survive. She tells the story of a girl who was told that she was too fat, and eventually learned to love her curves. She tells the story of an entire class of girls with no connections, who worked their asses off and eventually made it in Hollywood. She gives friendship breakups the level of depth and pain they deserve. She talks about how celebrity memoirs have helped her get through it all.

I laughed, I cried, I raged.

And I was so very grateful that Chelsea had written her own memoir to help her readers get through whatever they’re surviving. Even if it’s something as short lived as a 24 hour flu.