HELLO, AMERICA (and, hopefully, other parts of the world):

You might know me from shaking my butt and singing in a cheerleader costume on Glee, or from throwing shade (or dodging it) in the tabloids, or maybe even—if you're a super fan or just have a really good memory—from my child-actor days on TV shows like The Royal Family or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Which is exactly why I wanted to write this book—I wanted to tell my whole story and talk about the path (which was really more of a roller-coaster ride) that I took to get to be who I am now—an actress, singer, wife, and mother, currently knee-deep in spit-up.

Sometimes growing up happens in the blink of an eyelash extension. You spend years struggling to figure out who you are, and through a lot of those years you feel like it's going to take a bit of divine intervention for you to pull it all together. And then, all of a sudden, you find yourself sitting in the dining room, wondering what to make for dinner and what that baby-related stain on your shirt is, and your adulthood smacks you in the face. And if this hasn't happened to you yet, God willing someday it will. "Holy shit, I did it," you'll think. "I'm a grown-ass woman now." And let me tell you, it will feel good.

Writing this book gave me a chance to relive some of the best and worst times of my life, from predawn wake-up calls as a kindergartener getting ready to shoot my first sitcom to being a twenty-year-old with a fat stack of unpaid bills and an anorexic wallet. But you know what's crazy? Even when I look back at that girl I was decades ago, I still feel like I just saw her yesterday, like she hasn't been gone for all that long.

I started working on this book while I was still shooting Glee, and finished the last few chapters with my new baby boy, Josey, sitting in his chair just a few feet away. Motherhood means learning new things and having your expectations turned upside down every single day, but it has also taught me one thing for certain: Josey is my greatest success, and I will never do any better than him.

So yeah, being a mom changes things and makes you feel different in a lot of ways, but for me the big one is this: I'm braver. I've never been afraid of being an open book and telling it like it is, but now I can say, with 100 percent confidence, that zero fucks are given anymore. I don't care what other people think, because being a mom puts everything into perspective. You no longer have to decide what's important to you, because it's right in front of your face, and chances are he's hungry.

Josey gave me wings (I know it's cheesy, but it's true), and with this book, I hope to pass on a little bit of that flight to you. Your life doesn't have to be perfect for you to be proud. In fact, I think it's the opposite: the more imperfect your life has been, the prouder you should be, because it means you've come that much further, and also probably had a lot more fun along the way.