"Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mothers dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called 'calorie restriction,' eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided,'{28}Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesnt tint hers?'...

When Melissa Francis was eight, she won the role of a lifetime: Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted by the Ingalls family on the prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother. While Melissa thrived under pressure,...

A self-help primer for fans of the beloved show "Little House on the Prairie" by the former child star shares behind-the-scenes stories from the set and the lessons the author learned from her work with Michael Landon.