Brunette Ambition

BRUNETTE
AMBITION

LEA MICHELE

CROWN ARCHETYPE
NEW YORK

Copyright © 2014 by Lea Michele
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by CROWN ARCHETYPE, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Crown Archetype with colophon is a trademark of RANDOM HOUSE LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Michele, Lea.
Brunette ambition/Lea Michele.
p. cm.
1. Self-help—Personal Growth—General. 2. Biography & Autobiography—Entertainment & Performing Arts. 3. Self-help.
BF697.S46
2013050624

ISBN 978-0-8041-3907-6
eBook ISBN 978-0-8041-3908-3

Book design by JENNIFER K. BEAL DAVIS for BALLAST DESIGN
Photography credits: see
this page
Cover design by Michael Nagin
Cover photography: Peggy Sirota (cover); Justin Coit (fashion, food, fitness)

v3.1

This book is dedicated to my
beautiful mother:
Thank you for being the safety
net that has always allowed me
to reach for the stars.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

LETTER TO FANS

CHAPTER 1:
WHAT MAKES ME ME

CHAPTER 2:
THE BIZ

CHAPTER 3:
SELF-CARE 101

CHAPTER 4:
FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD

CHAPTER 5:
LIVING THE FIT LIFE

CHAPTER 6:
EVERYDAY STYLE

CHAPTER 7:
RED CARPET FASHION

CHAPTER 8:
HOLLYWOOD GLAM

CHAPTER 9:
FRIENDSHIP

CHAPTER 10:
MY LIFE WITH
GLEE

UNTIL NEXT TIME

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

TO THE GREATEST FANS ON EARTH

I
’ve been so lucky in my life—in
Glee
and beyond—to have such an incredible support system in all of you. You’ve really made this journey so wonderful, and I most certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without you.

This book is the story of how I got to where I am today—as incredible and unexpected as that journey has been. My hope is that you take something from it that will inspire and motivate you, and also make you realize that anything you want to accomplish in your life is completely possible. After all—through some remarkable luck and a lot of hard work—I’ve managed to make many of my dreams come true.

I especially want to thank my biggest fan, Cory, who read almost every chapter of this book. He, too, was so thankful for all the support I had from all of you. He very much lives on in these pages: Not only did he give me a ton of practical feedback in terms of notes and edits, but he shines through in everything that I’ve done in my life and has been an incredible source of love and inspiration. I couldn’t have made this book without him.

CH 1

WHAT MAKES ME ME

“A human being is only interesting if he’s in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it.”

—BARBRA STREISAND

I
firmly believe that where you come from makes you
you
—and that when you celebrate your roots and focus on how those roots make you distinct, you have the greatest chance of becoming your best self. Fortunately, the world is becoming more and more attuned to uniqueness, to celebrating everything that makes us all a bit different—so ignoring those quirks that make you stand out is a mistake. I never tried to put myself in a box, or attempted to “fit in,” because I really only knew how to play myself. I think this is because my parents instilled so much self-confidence in me and constantly reassured me that I was just great as I was. I’m so proud of who I am, and I owe it all to my family. They’re the essence of my being and the foundation of my story.

And my story begins in the Bronx, where I was born to a Jewish father and an Italian mother. My parents met when they were teenagers at the neighborhood playground. Picture this: My father, complete with a giant Jew fro, approached my mother on roller skates and asked her to smell his hair. Herbal Essences had just hit the shelves, and he figured it would make an excellent impression. Apparently it did, because they’ve been married for more than thirty years.

Though they theoretically grew up on the same block, my parents couldn’t have been from more different worlds. My father is from a small, traditional Jewish family, whereas my mom is from a huge Italian clan (I have nineteen younger cousins on one side alone). My parents are more complementary than similar—but they’re best friends, regardless. My mother is a retired nurse, and I get my emotional, nurturing side from her, as well as my ability to get through hard moments. She hasn’t always had an easy time. Her childhood was incredibly rough: She lost three of her six siblings, for one thing. And later, it wasn’t all roses either: When I was nineteen, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. But while she has every reason to be upset about the things she’s gone through, she’s never played the victim. She’s the most loving and caring and strong woman and is always taking care of everyone else.

Meanwhile, my father, a former deli owner, is an incredibly hard worker who is always hustling. He’s also a jokester and makes everything fun. He gave me his work ethic and his ability to make something out of nothing. When I was in high school, he sold his deli and got into real estate, and vastly improved our lives: He’s one of those guys who will always go after what he wants and would never think to passively stand around and wait for opportunity to knock. He will meet someone at a party and close a real estate deal twenty minutes later; when we shared a box with Slash at the Super Bowl, he pitched himself so hard as a potential backup singer for Guns N’ Roses (he has no musical background but was determined that they should collaborate), I really thought Slash might make room for him in the band. Whether he’s serious or kidding around, my dad lives his life without fear and has no shame about putting himself out there. His philosophy is that nobody is going to come to you, begging you to take a job (or in my case, a role). I learned to stay on my toes from him. Because of this, if you were to meet me, you’d think I didn’t actually have a job. I’m
always
putting myself out there; I’m never complacent; I’m never passive; I’m always looking for the next opportunity. My dad taught me how to hustle.

I’M
ALWAYS
PUTTING MYSELF OUT THERE; I’M NEVER COMPLACENT, I’M NEVER PASSIVE; I’M ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY. MY DAD TAUGHT ME HOW TO HUSTLE.

When I was four, my parents decided that they didn’t want me to become hardened by city life, and so we moved from the Bronx to a more pastoral stretch of New Jersey. It was there that a bizarre but wonderful twist of fate led me to be cast on Broadway (more on that later). The term
stage parents
makes my skin crawl, but my mom and dad were pretty much the opposite of the cliché. For one, it was
never
part of their plan. They would never have guessed in a million years when they had Lea Michele Sarfati on August 29, 1986, that she would work on Broadway and go on to be on a TV show in Los Angeles. They were completely unassuming about the entire thing. They were just a deli owner and a full-time nurse, whose sole ambition was to raise a happy and healthy daughter. They didn’t wear my early success as a badge, and they didn’t live vicariously through me—it was my thing, and they did not step into my spotlight. My acting career was just this extracurricular activity that I did and that made me happy, and my apparent delight in it was enough of a reason for them to let me keep doing it. The fact that they never applied any pressure, and never supplied an agenda for me, is why I’m still acting and singing today. I would be nothing without my upbringing: The color and texture it has supplied is why I am who I am—and not to oversimplify things, but it’s because I’m not like all the other girls that I’ve gotten to where I am today.