‘I was realising my own beliefs about myself were holding me back’

Jess Impiazzi has not had a conventional journey to becoming a published author as for much of her life she has been known as a reality TV star, which is a tag she has found hard to leave behind as her acting career blossomed.

Stints on MTV’s Ex On The Beach and the infamous Celebrity Big Brother, where she won the hearts of viewers, meant that she was put in the reality box and she has found the road to reinvention a rocky one.

Jess is a dedicated ambassador for Guide Dogs for the Blind, after her mother lost her sight when Jess was a teenager, and last year she released her autobiography, Silver Linings, in which she told her extraordinary story so far.

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Speaking to The Book Insider, Jess explained why she felt it was time to put pen to paper, so to speak, and tell her story.

Jess said: “At the time I was going through a pretty transformative time of my life. I was realising my own beliefs about myself were holding me back, I was understanding more about healing childhood trauma and figuring out why I made certain choices and mistakes from all this.

“I believe my story could help other people who have had any similar experiences and I wanted to contribute more to life that I had been. I saw some wonderful reviews from young women and women older than me saying the book had helped them see things differently and gave them some inspiration so that meant the world to me.

“I believe books and stories can help us all either come to terms with stuff or have a momentary break and escape.

“I’m a big book worm and writing my own just felt right.”

With most autobiographies, there can be an element of facing difficult moments in their lives and Jess told The Book Insider about how she found her emotions were as she went back over events in her life, especially the difficult times.

Jess admitted: “It felt quite therapeutic because I always spoke about things so matter of factly.

“However writing the book felt like the events and emotions behind them that I often hid could burst out my heart and my head on to the page.”

So, the question is, has writing her life story given Jess the bug to write fiction? The good news is that it has and she has written travelled a fair way along theta story line but before that is submitted to her publisher, she has the small matter of a self development book in the offing.

Jess said: “I am currently on the last six chapters of my next book, this one is more about our patterns and offering the tools I have used and continue to use to over come obstacles within our lives, our thinking patterns that we have and becoming aware of ourselves. I’m really looking forward to hopefully having this published next year.

“I did start a fiction book, being a huge Harry Potter fan I wanted to give it a go. I am 40,000 words into that book but it’s been shelved for the moment whilst I finish this self development and tool kit book.”

Silver Linings is available to buy HERE.