Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything: A Memoir

The final chapters of the memoir resolve the theme of Navigating the Dangers of Child Stardom. Throughout the memoir, Stoner exposes the abuse and exploitation they experienced within the entertainment industry. The process of healing from this was not linear, as Chapter 20 demonstrates; Stoner was raped by someone within the wellness community, an irony that reveals how fraught even their attempts to extricate themselves from their past were. Nevertheless, decades later, Stoner has gained perspective on these experiences and is able to process them via their writing. Stoner’s personal account has offered them the space to confront and work through the dangers and trauma they faced and to create awareness for other child stars.

The Epilogue thus assumes a retrospective stance that offers insights into Stoner’s overarching time in Hollywood. Stoner uses their move from Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert as a symbol of their broader narrative arc, the physical relocation spurring a tonal shift that mirrors their Journey Toward Recovery and Healing. Stoner depicts their move to the desert using detailed descriptive language that suggests the relief they felt upon making this transition:

I’ll never forget driving overnight to the Mojave Desert, the Los Angeles skyline in my rearview. […] I pulled up to a pale green house [and] removed my shoes and tiptoed indoors like a cautious visitor, sitting down on the warm hardwood floor. Light poured through the stained glass, decorating my skin in jewel tones. Exquisite solitude enveloped me (287).

Language like “warm,” “light,” “exquisite,” and “enveloped” evokes the peace Stoner experienced upon starting their new life, while their sense of being “decorat[ed]” in “jewel tones” reflects their hard-won self-acceptance, depicting them as precious and beautiful. Meanwhile, the image of the LA skyline in the car’s rearview mirror functions as synecdoche—an instance of departure that marks a broader farewell to the entertainment industry. The subsequent pages make the juxtaposition of past and present explicit, as Stoner considers all of the experiences that led them to this moment in the “pale green house.” They consider both the hardships and triumphs that compelled them to move and gave them the confidence to start anew. By placing these sequences at the end of the memoir, Stoner formally affects a resolved and hopeful mood.

Stoner’s departure from Hollywood also captures the trajectory of their Self-Discovery amid Hollywood Culture and Childhood Trauma, another of the memoir’s primary themes and one that intersects with Stoner’s work to heal. “[S]tepping away from the grind” of the entertainment industry “illuminated [their] path with unmatched clarity” (289). In the Mojave Desert, Stoner had the physical and mental space to see themselves in new ways and could visualize a new path for themselves as a result. Their continued work to promote mental health awareness reflects Stoner’s mission to turn their trauma into advocacy—the same impulse behind much of the memoir. Stoner’s entrepreneurial and philanthropic work opened their eyes to “the ongoing horror stories of fellow child stars” (290). Stoner thus owns that their experience—while distinct to them—is not unique. Young children continue to face dangers in the industry, and Stoner wants to use their platform to fight for victims like themselves.