An Unbelievable Story: Confessions of a Video Vixen

Bibliographic Details:
Confessions of a Video Vixen, Karrine Steffans, July 1, 2005, Harper Collins

Summary:
Steffans was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands and spent most of her childhood there. Steffans has a very close relationship with grandmother but sadly an abusive relationship with her mother. Steffans grew up in poverty, not having any hot water and living in a one bedroom apartment with her grandmother, aunts, and uncles living with her. Steffans was raped in a hotel room by a boy named Rodney during her childhood also. One of Steffans’ boyfriends mother introduced her into stripping but then she stopped and starting dating a rapper named Kool G Rap. While Steffans lived with her abusive boyfriend G and she attempts to kill herself by taking a full bottle of prescription pills and playing with his gun. Steffans eventually conceives a baby with her boyfriend G after numerous miscarriages caused by the abuse. Steffans moved to LA to leave her boyfriend. While in LA Steffans didn’t spent time with her son and spent most of her time partying and having sexual encounters with different men.

Steffans met famed music-video director Hype Williams and he had Steffans appear in her first music-video with Jay Z. Steffans did numerous music videos after that including Ja Rule’s “Between Me and You”, Mystikal’s “Danger” and “Hot”. Also Steffans met director F. Gary Gary and he had Steffans star in his film “A Man a Part” with Vin Diesel. Steffans became a drug addict and an alcoholic. Steffans spent so much money on drugs and alcoholic, she didn’t have any money for her bills. Steffans started dancing in clubs to pay her bills and met a lawyer who gave her money. In her epilogue, Steffans writes that because of what she went through, it made her a stronger woman. Steffans is on her own and providing for her son and herself only. She loves her son and the life that they have together.

Quotation:
“As I grow older, I realize that I had to go through it all in order to reach my destiny in life. ….I used to pity myself, but now I rejoice in who I have become and am excited about who I will be” (Steffans 204).

Quotation Context:
The quotation above shows how she realized her mistakes, what she was doing wrong and what she learned from it. Before that, Steffans underwent a lot of thematic violence including the physical abuse from her mother and ex-husband. The rape she encountered during her childhood and the exotic dancing she perform at clubs. Steffans was a teenage runaway, a drug addict, and an alcoholic. Steffans got so caught up in the party life that she missed any time with her son and became broke. After, Steffans began to see her life going around in a circle; repeating the same mistakes over and over. Steffans got her life back on track and was seeing her son more often. All of these events happened for a reason and motivated Steffans to a brighter light in the end. Steffans believed she made it through these horrible events because God was at her side and He still is. This quotation changed my thoughts after reading the last chapter because I thought she was mainly trying to get back at the dudes she slept with and put their whole business out there. After this quote, I felt she told us about the relationships because we needed to know how far she has come to get where she is now. We don’t know the impact unless we know the start.