Fame-to-memoir timeline: October 2008-August 2009 (Ten Months)
Think what you will about the limits of a career born on The Real Housewives of Atlanta. The show’s NeNe Leakes knows it isn’t auspicious, but she’s taking all doubts to the bank.
Her brash sassiness and over-the-top personality made the show more than just another franchise spinoff after its October 7, 2008, debut on Bravo. Leakes recognized her own popularity quickly and rushed to add “author” to her list of careers (stripper being one of them). Her memoir, Never Make the Same Mistake Twice: Lessons on Love and Life Learned the Hard Way, was published August 11, 2009—less than a month after the show’s second season began.
The book sprinkles in stories about the show with more serious sections about her struggles in childhood and as a single mother before taking control of her life.
In case that wasn’t enough exposure, she also competed on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011, booked appearances on Glee and is part of the regular cast of the upcoming show The New Normal.