@Krista Brea I am SO excited to finally share this! I created my very first children’s book with Krista Brea during the beta test for the incredible Children’s Book Studio app she created. 🎉📖 I honestly never dreamed I could create a children’s book—let alone create one in just a couple of hours! 😍 Krista made the process so easy to follow. I brought my idea to life, created the pages and illustrations, and downloaded my finished book as a PDF. Seeing it completed was such an exciting moment! This is exactly why I love trying new things. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re capable of creating until someone gives us the right tools and we simply give it a try. ❤️ You can learn more about what Krista is creating inside her KDP Publishing community. I would LOVE for you to take a look at my first children’s book and let me know what you think! 📚✨ I still can’t believe I made this! 😂❤️

With @Krista Brea I cracked open my imaginary fortune cookie and apparently it has BIG plans for me. 😂📖✨ “Your story inspires, your photos empower, your books impact. Next: Bestselling author & streaming TV series.” Okay… I’ll take THAT fortune! 🙌 As I continue writing my memoir, I Escaped Hollywood, Barely, I’m realizing just how many stories I have to tell. Hollywood. Modeling. Acting. Japan. MTV. Photography. The people I met. The opportunities I had. The mistakes I made. The things I survived. And definitely a few “What was I THINKING?!” chapters. 😂 And now I’m learning how to take some of those memories off the page and bring them to life through anime shorts and visual storytelling. 🎬✨ Could I Escaped Hollywood, Barely. Someday become something we WATCH as well as read? Now THAT would be a chapter I’d love to live. ❤️ For now, I’m going to keep writing. One memory. One story. One chapter at a time. 🥠📖 What would YOUR fortune cookie predict for the next chapter of your story?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately… We save photographs. We save old letters. We save little pieces of our lives. But how many of us actually save OUR STORY? The funny parts. The heartbreaking parts. The mistakes. The adventures. The people we loved. The things we survived. And those moments that changed the direction of our lives forever. You don't have to be famous to write a memoir. You just have to have lived. ❤️ That’s why I created my Memoir Skool. It’s a place to start putting those memories into words — one story, one chapter and sometimes just one memory at a time. My own memoir begins in 1984, but I've discovered through writing that one memory opens the door to another…and suddenly pieces of your life you haven't thought about in decades come rushing back. Your children may know you as Mom or Dad. Your grandchildren may know you as Grandma or Grandpa. But do they know who you were before them? 📖 That’s the story worth telling. 👇 If you were going to write ONE story from your life today, what would it be?

Before Hollywood, There Was a Skateboard My education didn't begin in a classroom. (ハリウッドの前にスケートボードがあった — Hariuddo no Mae ni Sukēto Bōdo) People often ask me why I never seemed to fit inside the traditional path. The truth is, I don't think I was ever meant to. My education didn't begin in a classroom. It began on a skateboard. I was about nine years old when I got my first board, and from that moment on, school became an interruption instead of a destination. Southern California in the 1970s was unlike anywhere else. We were in the middle of a drought, and homeowners were encouraged to drain their swimming pools to conserve water. Overnight, neighborhoods across the San Fernando Valley were filled with empty concrete bowls. Adults saw a water shortage. We saw the greatest playground imaginable. Long before skateboarding became a global phenomenon, we were climbing backyard fences with our boards tucked under our arms, searching for the next empty pool. Every pool was different. Some were deep. Some were cracked. Some still had a few inches of green water at the bottom, with leaves floating across the surface. None of that mattered. The moment your wheels dropped into the curved walls, the world disappeared. There were no teachers. No bells. No homework. Just sunburned kids, scraped knees, and the sound of skateboard wheels echoing off concrete. It felt like freedom. Looking back now, I realize we were living something that would later become legendary. Years afterward, movies like Lords of Dogtown would capture pieces of that California skate culture. At the time, though, we weren't trying to make history. We were just kids. School couldn't compete with that feeling. By fourth grade, I had already started skipping classes whenever I could. One day became two. Two became a habit. By junior high, ditching school felt almost normal. My report cards certainly didn't suggest a bright academic future. But while I wasn't learning algebra, I was learning something else.

If you’re new here, breathe 💜 You don’t have to figure everything out at once. This is a space for storytelling, creativity, reflection, connection, photography, memoir, and being fully human. This community is for:📖 Writers & storytellers📸 Creatives & photographers💜 Deep feelers & thoughtful humans✨ People finding their voice again🌎 Anyone wanting real connection over performance Here’s how to begin: 1️⃣ Introduce yourself in the community. Tell us who you are, where you’re from, what you create, or what brought you here. 2️⃣ Explore the categories. You’ll find spaces for memoir, creativity, photography, conversations, inspiration, and community connection. 3️⃣ Participate freely. Comment, share thoughts, ask questions, post your work, celebrate wins, or simply observe until you feel comfortable 💜 4️⃣ Be kind. This is a supportive, encouraging, judgment-free space. We grow together here. 5️⃣ Have fun with it ✨You do not need to be perfect to belong here. This isn’t just a community. It's a place to remember who you are through story, creativity, and connection. I’m so happy you’re here 💜— Cristal