Why everyone is talking abou JENNETTE MCCURDY

On the cusp of Jennette’s Australian tour, Woman’s Day unpacks why the former child star’s memoir has struck such a chord with the world...

Fame is brutal, and fame seems to be exceptionally horrible if it arrives when you're young and female.

We learnt it from Judy Garland, then we learnt it from Drew Barrymore, and more recently from Britney Spears. In fact, it's a lesson that gets rediscovered so frequently, What, then, is there left for Jennette McCurdy to tell us? At the age of 15 she achieved stardom playing the character of Sam in the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly, which ran from 2007 to 2012.

On screen, Jennette was tomboyish, surly and very funny but behind the scenes, she was fragile, exploited and deeply unhappy.

At the age of 30 she's ready to share her pain. This memoir recounts the eating disorders, the alcohol abuse and the family dysfunction that went hand-in-hand with her success.

So far, so misery. If that was all Jennette had to offer, only the pathologically naive and the incurably prurient need apply. Yet there's so much more here. Although she was a reluctant actress, she's a superb writer, and I'm Glad My Mom Died is as unsentimental and blackly comic as its title.