Autobiography - Living Doll

A strong will for total reinvention. The Girl Who Would Be Barbie? She is more complex than that.

Ruth Laura Edlund

Cindy's upbringing was bizarre in the extreme...It's a much more complex and peculiar tale than you might think...And all along, what was going on inside was far more interesting.

Emma Smith, Western Daily Press

She had an unconventional hillbilly childhood, being raised on a ramshackle Ohio farm by a madcap inventor father and her eccentric mother...A member of Mensa, Jackson's materplan to transform her looks - and her life - worked.

Hannah Stephenson, Press Association

Living Doll is an unputdownable read about the brainy and beautiful Cindy's unusual life and takes the lid off the cosmetic surgery industry. Fascinating stuff.

Sally Neville, Hot Gossip

From lonely outcast, to punk misfit, to celebrity socialite, she is an amalgamation of all her personas.

Jane Savva, Daily Record

A case of the all-American girl who didn't fit the cheerleading prom-queen image to which teenage girls were, and still are, supposed to aspire.

David Thomas, Sunday Telegraph

Cindy Jackson's story is poignant and inspiring. It also resonates with people all over the world who are thinking of altering their appearance.

Marianne Shaefer-Trench, ZDF Television

Prologue from Living Doll

By Cindy Jackson

I first went public with my cosmetic surgery back in 1989. As a result, I inadvertently became famous for my operations, which is something I never expected. Since then a good deal of misinformation about me has found its way into the public domain. I have long been uncomfortable with this and that's one reason I decided to write my autobiography. Whether the facts were distorted in my favour or against me is immaterial. From my point of view, attempts to sensationalise my story have been disappointing because the truth is much more incredible than anything that has been invented so far.

There has also been speculation about my family and background. Some of the things that have been said and written about them are so wide of the mark that I felt duty-bound to set the record straight for the sake of my loved ones. This is also their story. And - as is the case with anyone who writes with honesty and candour about their families - I had to open some closets and give a few skeletons a good rattle to do so. I am grateful to all of my relatives for giving their blessing for this book to go ahead, especially my sister Gloria. She preserved memories and photographs that would have otherwise been lost forever - as well as the Barbie doll I was given in 1961that became my talisman.

My sanity and motivations for transforming my face and body to such an extreme extent have been hotly debated in classrooms and on thousands of Internet sites. I appear in many textbooks and have even been the subject of several university theses. Certain sectors of the art world have declared me a "performance artist." Barbie doll aficionados either dismiss me outright or regard me as the ultimate collector. Frankly, I find a good deal of this attention - and the level of emotion attached to it - rather spurious since no one could have known the whole story until now.

Over the years I've been sent hundreds of thousands of letters and case histories from my fellow cosmetic surgery patients. They wanted to know how I managed to deal with the medical establishment and get the results I wanted while so many others, both in and out of the public eye, have failed. This book is also for them.

Finally, the question that I am most often asked: "Why on earth would anyone have so much cosmetic surgery?" is answered within these pages.

In order to fully explain all of the above it was necessary to go back to the very beginning and share the genetic and environmental influences that shaped me just as profoundly as did the surgeon's scalpel. For the very first time, here is my extraordinary true life story. Because, as John Keats so famously said, "Truth is beauty and beauty truth...

Readers Reviews

Finally, the real story! I have been following Cindy in the press since I first heard about her in 1994. I suppose in some ways it was almost like a car wreck, where you are involuntarily compelled to slow down to take a look. While I didn't actively search out info on her, if I saw something in the paper or on a talk show, I looked at it. It was always pretty much the same article or interview, 'American spends over £50k to look like a Barbie Doll'. As time went on, she really did go from being pretty in 1994 (about 2/3 of the way through her body morph plan) to being absolutely stunning in 1997. That really intrigued me as I would not have thought it was possible for someone to change themselves so much through cosmetic surgery and not look like the NYC 'cat woman', Cher, or Michael Jackson. Cindy looks completely 'normal'.

I ordered her 'how to' cosmetic surgery guide and video last year and it was very interesting, describing what she had done. It is a useful guide for anyone considering cosmetic surgery. This book, Living Doll, is really her story, beginning way back when she was a child, through her rock & roll days, to her cosmetic surgery, being in the public eye and how the press can distort the facts to make a better headline. I thought the book was well written and honest, well worth the read (especially for anyone contemplating multiple cosmetic surgeries).

S.W. from Seattle, WA USA

WHAT a life! WHAT a lady! WHAT a book! I have followed Cindy for many years, never missing any American TV show she was to be on, and I have followed her remarkable transformation. I have been interested in plastic surgery long before I knew anything about Cindy, I have read every article, watched every TV show regarding PS. Maybe someday I will work with Cindy, ha.

To finally read the life story of someone you have followed is a great journey. I learned that Cindy did not have an easy childhood, but overcame her adversities and took control of her life, never taking no for an answer. Cindy has lived the kind of life that I dream of, and reading her book gives me the inspiration to have the surgeries I want, and to do the things I want, and stop listening to what others expect of me. Cindy has lived, and will continue to live, an amazing life.

S.B from Memphis, Tn USA

This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Cindy goes into frank detail about her unusual childhood and details why she felt the need to have cosmetic surgery. She has the ability to laugh at herself and is entirely honest about everyone she has met on her journey through life as well as being honest about herself. As well as being an interesting story I would say that anyone considering cosmetic surgery should read this book as it lists the "dos and don'ts," how you should choose your surgeon, why your GP may not always know best, how to go through a consultation. All in all this is a story of how a girl from an ordinary background went on to live an extraordinary life. All of us have our dreams in childhood but very few of us go on to carry them forward into our adult like. This girl made her dreams come true.

M.B. from Oxford, England

As I turned over each page, my eyes widened and widened, not believing just how hard her life was. Her father is beyond belief and how Cindy ever survived childhood, let alone adulthood is a serious mystery. No fiction writer could have ever come up with the outrageous situations Cindy actually LIVED, from a scared, insecure and emotionally abused child to the world beauty she is today.

Her book is completely magnetic. I adore books, and can get bored easily, but it's so well written, no-one will be able to put it down. The honestly, the complexity and the painful truths made me thank my lucky stars I didn't experience the unbelievable troubles Cindy was forced to contend with. This book opens a Pandora's box to reveal the desperate heartaches that 100 people would never experience in one lifetime. Cindy did, she survived and she conquered. There are a lot of valuable lessons about life in this book.

If you want to know why Cindy Jackson became the international icon she's become, how it happened, what personal wars she won and who she really is, you need to read her book. It will astound you.

T.W. from London, England

BEAUTY IS THE BEST REVENGE! She managed to make herself, a plain middle-aged nobody from the backwoods of Ohio, into a stunningly beautiful celebrity. She did haute couture catwalk modelling in London for the first time when she was well over 40, which is unheard of. Reading her autobiography, I realised that Cindy Jackson has been doing the impossible with the improbable all her life.

Whether or not you agree with all the plastic surgery, it's hard not to end up admiring her for actually thriving against the most unimaginable odds and soul-destroying setbacks that plagued her life from very early childhood. Yet she never comes across as bitter or self-pitying. Instead there is an ever-present strength of character and unexpected sense of humour that quite frankly I don't know how she managed to keep.

It is often trotted out that Cindy Jackson is a member of Mensa, has a ridiculously high I.Q. blah, blah, blah, which I always thought seemed rather a waste when all she did with it was turn herself into a Barbie doll. Her genius is actually palpable in this book. When I read that she did have many loftier ambitions and how they were all irrevocably thwarted one after the other, a different picture emerged. Now I "get it" when she dresses up as Barbie. She's having the last laugh at a world that repeatedly rejected her immense talent and ambition because she didn't have the "right" address or looks. Now she invites critics to reject her on the grounds that she does. The woman is a true subversive.

I think it's delightful, and poetic justice, that this unique lady now makes a living from sharing her beauty secrets and fountain of youth with others who wish, like her, to gain power through beauty. Good luck to 'em all!

Living Doll reveals the real person behind the Barbie image, and shows her to be a talented and entertaining writer. I learned a lot from this multi-layered book.

J.S., PhD from Queensland, Australia

There are so many amazing revelations... Talk about sex, drugs and rock and roll! This babe has been there and got the T-shirt. Her autobiography reveals an astonishing past that no one suspected Cindy Jackson could have lived - or even survived. Her whole life and, wow it's VERY colourful, is documented in a no-holds-barred approach. It was extremely hard to put down because I always wanted to find out what was going to happen next!

M.K. from Sheffield, England

Don't get mad, get beautiful! This book made me realize just how underestimated Cindy Jackson really is, and that's nothing new to her! The twist is that she makes being underestimated work in her favor! Out of necessity she learned to find opportunities where others might only see insurmountable problems. Or as she put it, "When somebody hands you a lemon, make lemonade."

Cindy has had a very tough life and it made wonder how I would have coped with some of the awful situations she has had to face. I'm pretty sure I would have given up a long time ago! Yet she came through it all with a beautiful face and body, her own business, and is the toast of London society! I think most women would enjoy this book and it's a must-read for anybody thinking of cosmetic surgery. Living Doll is very well written and full of surprises. A real page-turner.

B.B. from NYC, NY