This Is Me: A Reckoning, the new memoir from Hayden Panettiere, covers the beginnings of her career as a child actor in New York, starting with commercials and soap operas before moving into movies and network television.  She also details her family dynamics and her on-again/off-again with Wladimir Klitschko, the father of her daughter, and how her addictions impacted the relationships between them all.  The book ends with the unfortunate death of her younger brother in 2023.

I first was introduced to Panettiere in 2001 when, at the age of 12, she joined the cast of Ally McBeal for its final season.  That role, surprisingly, did not get mentioned in the book at all.  From there, she would star on Heroes and Nashville on television and movies such as Scream 4 and I Love You, Beth Cooper.  I knew she had a relationship and a child with Klitschko, and that she had given up custody of their daughter to him, but not the details nor the depths of her addiction.  All told, this was an interesting look behind the curtains of her life, taking responsibility for some of the screwups she has made along the way.  Hopefully, as she approaches her forties, she’s able to maintain her family relationships and her career.