It made the lie that Id been living, for the last year, parading us all over social media and town as this loving couple, it made that gaping wound hurt all over again. "But also, it was supporting him. Alex and her daughter parade around the house with the toys, in one of the first times the shelter feels like home). In addition to student loans, she had paid for college with the help of Pell grants. She describes her mom as being overweight and speaking with a fake British accent. Land told NPR that she did volunteer at a center, but she didn't meet with too many clients. pic.twitter.com/UIwwR0Mf5L / Twitter" Most of the authors relationships had faded because of the embarrassment and judgment of her daily life. He said he wouldnt have gotten together with me if he hadnt thought I was going to be rich so he wouldnt have to work. In the book, I didn't really talk up the emotional abuse because one, my kid was going to read. It was a short-lived marriage that had become physically violent. "I think, at one point, I had about seven all at once," the real Stephanie Land told NPR. Myself included. I feel like asking them: why on earth would I want that? A Maid fact-check reveals that the real Stephanie Land was 28 when she was pregnant with her daughter Mia (today, Mia goes by her middle name, Story). We were alone for several months after that, the girls and me. Instead of learning to walk in a halfway house, as Story did, Maddy grows up in a subsidized apartment. In Maid, Alex spends quite a bit of time in a domestic violence shelter, where she and her daughter can have a temporary safe place to live, make some friends and allies, and obtain some free meals and clothing. When she isnt writing or checking Twitter, shes probably watching the latest K-drama or giving a concert performance in her car. [11] Barack Obama placed the book on his "Summer Reading List" of 2019[17] and actress Reese Witherspoon said she "loved this story about one woman surviving impossible circumstances. VPN to ZTNA. "Throughout this whole process of giving my story to the hands of strangers, I had to force myself to trust theyll do it justice. He called it an "unflinching look at America's class divide.". She made a wish list through Walmart that she shared on social media, and boxes started showing up filled with pots, pans, clothes, and silverware. It feels almost implied throughout Netflixs Maid that Alex had an unstable upbringing, but that couldnt be farther from the truth. In an essay on herpersonal website (opens in new tab), Land says that she left the relationship in January 2008, and that she began cleaning houses and sought government assistance because she wasn't able to resume work in the restaurant industry while seeking daycare for Story, since most facilities are only open during daytime hours on weekdays. All the show tunes! Before the Netflix series premiered, Land posted a long message on Instagram about her feelings about the release and the creative process. Maid draws heavily from one womans real-life story, but changes some key details. I laughed at the ridiculousness and asked him if he was serious he knew I was a writer, after all. "Five Takeaways from Stephanie Land's Memoir, https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=689611873, "She Used to Scrub Toilets for $9 an Hour. The first line of her debut book reads: "My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter. ", Yes. There were a lot of memes going around at the time about how people should be drug-tested for welfare, and a lot of my friends would post on Facebook and social media some type of hatred for people on food stamps. Land was never in a domestic violence shelter, but she did volunteer with a nonprofit organization. My oldest, Mia, and I have taken to watching a couple of my favorite movies from the 1980s when were out traveling alone together. For example, Land says that when she started, the agencies charged clients $20 per hour and she was paid $8.55 an hour, which was right around the minimum wage in Washington state at the time. My answer has always returned to a strong desire of not wanting to disappoint. Todd Grisham later worked as a professional wrestling . Since then, the success of her book has led to more financial stability. According to one study, caseloads across all safety net programs rose to over 300 million recipients throughout this period however, Land and those like her were unfairly discriminated against in their daily lives, all the while still not getting enough assistance to live sufficiently. You don't have the chance to see this in the miniseries, but it is touched on in theMaid novel. She eventually realized it was the mold, especially after their illnesses cleared up when they moved. "[6] Emily Cooke of The New York Times summed up her review by focusing on the clarity of Land's suffering in the work: "Land survived the hardship of her years as a maid, her body exhausted and her brain filled with bleak arithmetic, to offer her testimony. I isolated myself from my community. Yes. They asked me if Id lost control of bodily functions or consciousness. In the series, Alex (Margaret Qualley) lives in the similar-looking fictional town of Port Hampstead. By far. The Three Car Crashes That Changed My Life, "I lived on $6 a day with a 6-year-old and a baby on the way. The couple met in 2018 and started dating shortly after. Police officers photographed the bruises around her neck. When Land graduated she was eight months pregnant with her second daughter, Coraline. It was an unplanned pregnancy and she wasn't married to the baby's father. Land turned to government assistance to help make ends meet. She seems to live in a constant state of hustle-and-bustle, meeting people through work and assistance programs. By far. We follow it as it scoots along, singing this silly song about searching for the piece thats missing, while it meets frogs and butterflies and stops to look at flowers. Blended families FTW. It was of course really triggering and hard to watch and traumatic in some parts. However, Mia's father began to call repeatedly, telling Stephanie he wanted to come back and fix the window in the door, which he had punched a hole through. She lived in Europe with a husband who was much younger (he was only seven years older than Stephanie). Before meeting Faust, Stephanie Land had rekindled an abusive relationship following the events of the series. Its also nearly impossible to socialize when youre a single mother living in poverty who has the time to go on a date between the rental assistance seminars, work, dinner, and then bath time with her daughter? Today, she is happily married, having tied the knot with Tim Faust in 2019. One year later, she published an essay about working as a housekeeper inVox (opens in new tab), which went viral and led to her getting a book agent. She ended up working "anywhere from 20 to 25 hours a week." Kates coat was a Catherine Walker rewear; Diana wore her Moschino suit numerous times. It seems she was struggling somewhat and planned to go back into freelancing. Meanwhile, he told me repeatedly that hed kill himself if he was convicted of the felony or if he had to go to prison. Its really hard to absolutely know how hated you are for needing assistance. Readers may remember the book on which Netflixs new limited series is based: Stephanie Lands bestselling 2019 memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mothers Will to Survive. Especially to me. "[19] In The Washington Post, Jenner Rogers writes, "Maid isnt about how hard work can save you but about how false that idea is. I kind of saw that happening leading up to it and it terrified me. Visit our corporate site. [4] From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. She had housing assistance, Medicaid, a Pell Grant for college tuition, LIHEAP for help with utilities, WIC checks for supplemental nutrition for new mothers and children, child care grants, and was enrolled in the SNAP program for food stamps. She didn't want the series to stick too closely to the book since the memoir is tightly focused on her and two of the years that she worked as a house cleaner.Her tenth meeting was with actress Margot Robbie (representing her production company, Lucky Chap) and TV writer/director John Wells (Shameless, The West Wing, ER). Then I moved with my nine-month-old daughter into a homeless shelter. The first sentence of Stephanie Land's memoir states, "My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter." By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. [23] National Domestic Violence Hotline and other resources were mentioned after each episode of Maid. Land's memoir follows a similar trajectory as the show, beginning with her leaving an abusive relationship and raising her daughter Mia (who now goes by Story, and uses they/them pronouns). It was an unplanned pregnancy and she wasn't married to the baby's father. My four-year-old daughter had started to mimic his posturing, his finger-pointing, and even told me to go away because my face looked bad. The police officers left me and the girls just after midnight. Yes. Similar to what Alex (Margaret Qualley) experiences in the TV series, the true story behind Maid on Netflix confirms that Stephanie Land's relationship with the father of her daughter had become emotionally abusive. Eventually, the price for an hour of cleaning went up to $25 per hour.After being with the cleaning agency for two years, Land's salary had gone up to $9.25 an hour. -NPR, Yes. Guests also had to maintain a clean house, something that Land was used to doing given her line of work at the time. But the fog of the whole situation was so dense, Id lost sight of my compass. Though the additional characters in the story are mostly fictionalizedthe book only lightly touches on her ex and her parents, and she doesn't mention a client similar to Reginamany of the events actually happened, including Story's pony party and the car accident. In the book, Land and Story live with Lands father for a short time, and barely see Lands expatriate mother at all. The actress opens up about the surreal process of playing the Lark in the Netflix fantasy prequel. Quinci LeGardye is a Contributing Culture Editor who covers TV, movies, Korean entertainment, books, and pop culture. I am not an angry person, I try to avoid it as much as possible, but the more I spoke in public speaking events, not only the book tour audiences but the public speaking audiences, they were mainly White people who maybe had house cleaners of their own. One afternoon, a few weeks before I finally told him to leave, we were all in the backyard together. Today, Land is remarried with a blended family of four. It even made former President Barack Obama's summer reading list in 2019. Not only are hours lost to filling out paperwork and waiting in offices, but time is also spent going to required classes and seminars on how rental assistance works or how to use electricity most efficiently. Author Stephanie Land is one of the women who have experienced non-deadly strangulation at the hands of her partner. / CBS News. ", My greatest honor: I wrote a book that touched people living in poverty, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Return of Empathy When America Needs It Most, "I Left Poverty After Writing 'Maid.' And she worked as a nurse. [26] The book will combine Land's personal experiences with investigative reporting about higher education and the cost of it in the United States. 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. For example, there was the Porn House, named for the numerous issues of Hustler in the nightstand and the bottle of lubricant that sat by the alarm clock. I know how grueling the job can be, and I swore I'd never ask. CBS News: "Maid" was a big hit when it was first published. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a16d10f6c43ef73 Our protagonist onscreen in Maid seems to be a lone wolf, with virtually no friends and barely any family. The seven-part series was adapted from Stephanie Land's 2019 bestselling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, . Like in the show, Land's boyfriend, whose name in the memoir is Jamie, was upset with her decision to keep the baby. They had only known each other for four months. Through the divorce process, my friends have tried to offer some kind of comfort by telling me they know there is a man out there for me. 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