This Will Only Hurt a Little

More about the book

From a young age, Busy Philipps has been headstrong and determined to embrace life fully. Her journey began when she left Scottsdale, Arizona, at nineteen to pursue acting in Hollywood, facing numerous challenges along the way. In her candid memoir, she shares experiences of navigating a sexist industry marked by on-set bullying and body shaming, supporting friends through devastating losses, and enduring personal betrayals from loved ones. Busy also opens up about her struggles with postpartum anxiety and the complexities of motherhood. Despite these hardships, her sly humor shines through, revealing her belief that disappointment should not deter her. She recounts moments of both struggle and joy, from a knee injury at a middle school dance to a violent incident on the set of Freaks and Geeks. Her life is peppered with laughter and triumphs, such as landing her first paid acting gig through a Cher impression, reinventing a genre with Freaks and Geeks, forming a close friendship with Michelle Williams, staging a surprise wedding, and experiencing natural childbirth with a Mad Men-themed hallucination.