1994

Chapter 1: Intro

I’ve never had it easy in life. Every day seems to be a struggle that I'm trying to overcome. I was  (and had always) suffered from depression, although the public saw my life as “ideal”. To some extent it was. I lived with Michael Jackson, arguably the biggest celebrity at the time, and was a fairly well-known fashion designer. Michael had decided to adopt me when I was 11 after he had visited the awful orphanage I had been living at basically since birth. He treated me like a princess and I loved him more than anyone in the world. I considered him my best friend, and not really my father, but in reality he was like both to me. But being connected with the most famous celebrity was not always easy. When I was younger, Michael initially told me that because of his “situation”, I would immediately become the attention of the paparazzi. I was terrified. Every time we left Neverland, Michael and I were attacked by paparazzi and fans. As time went on, I had made a joke out of the paparazzi. Instead of letting them try to take some unflattering photo of Michael and I, I would either flip them off or make incredibly silly faces (of which were notoriously noted by magazines and the news). 

Fashion designing became a passion of mine since I was little. I loved art, and after Michael adopted me, I had more opportunity to make drawing a full-time passion of mine. At 14 Michael saw my drawings and my developing fashion sense and asked me if he could show “someone special” my outfit drawings. I responded with a simple “Sure” and the next day Michael asked me if I wanted to design clothing line. I agreed, and the line quickly became a hit. When the public knew that I, Michael Jackson’s famous young friend, was designing women’s clothing, they flooded to the stores. 

I was growing up quickly and was clueless to the life-changing event that was soon to come…