I spoke to lawyers and the prosecutor. It feels almost implied throughout Netflixs Maid that Alex had an unstable upbringing, but that couldnt be farther from the truth. Social media contributed to rising stigmas about poverty and government assistance. Living with illness or pain is a regular part of life when you dont have private insurance in America, which is a problem faced mostly by people of low income. ", Yes. Land has remarried and lives with her husband, Tim Faust,. I just think America is so work-focused, and it goes back to that stupid American myth that if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps then you'll make. Its one womans story of inching out of the dirt and how the middle class turns a blind eye to the poverty lurking just a few rungs belowand its one worth reading. The dog was still losing her mind. What I saw makes me never want to be rich. They had only known each other for four months. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. She has also gotten married. (In one episode, a fellow resident at the battered women's shelter gives Alex and her daughter hundreds of left-over My Little Pony dolls. For example, there was the Porn House, named for the numerous issues of Hustler in the nightstand and the bottle of lubricant that sat by the alarm clock. Prior to the publication of her memoir in 2019, Land had $50,000 in student loans to pay off and she was renting a home from her ex-mother-in-law. Ex-maid turns story of struggle into best-selling book. [1] [2] [3] She is best known for writing Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive (2019), which was adapted to television miniseries Maid (2021) for Netflix. It made the lie that Id been living, for the last year, parading us all over social media and town as this loving couple, it made that gaping wound hurt all over again. -Vox. Netflix's miniseries Maid was inspired by Stephanie Land's memoir called Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive; here's how it compares to the book.In the TV show, young mother Alex Russell (Margaret Qualley) flees in the night with her daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) from her abusive ex-boyfriend Sean Boyd (Nick Robinson). Catherine, Princess of Wales, Had a Hilarious Reaction to Being Called Prince Williams Assistant, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Majorly Channeled Princess Diana in Her Look from This Weekend, Camilla Will Officially Be Known as Queen CamillaNot Queen Consort CamillaAfter May 6, The 75 Best K-Dramas You'll Be Completely Hooked On, Selena Gomez Revealed Meryl Streep Is Joining 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 3, The 56 Best Musical Movies of All Time: Iconic Movie Musicals, Sophia Brown on Joining the World of The Witcher: Blood Origin, 'Ginny & Georgia' Season 2: Everything We Know, The Cast of 'The Crown' Season 5: Your Guide. They had only known each other for four months. Its worth listening to. Her oldest daughter, Mia, was six. "[21], Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive was adapted to a 10-episode limited series Maid (2021) for the streaming service Netflix and released on October 1, 2021. Kates coat was a Catherine Walker rewear; Diana wore her Moschino suit numerous times. He said he wouldnt have gotten together with me if he hadnt thought I was going to be rich so he wouldnt have to work. This meant that out of the 20 clients she had, she would clean two or three houses each day. "A lot of them wanted to do a movie and to keep it very tightly focused on the book and make it a true adaptation and that just didnt sound great to me," Land told The Seattle Times. And it was really incredible how close to my experience that was. The couple first met in the year 2018 and began their relationship just a few months later. The real-life Alex is now a New York Times best-selling author. He and his wife couldnt make ends meet in the economic collapse, leaving Land and her daughter without support. Then I Hired a Maid", "She has a bestseller and hit Netflix series. I stood in my kitchen, leaning against the counter, holding a half-asleep Coraline, with Mia standing next to me, and stared at the brochures theyd left on my table, explaining signs to watch for after experiencing strangulation. [2] Land and her eldest daughter occasionally lived in homeless shelters, transitional housing and a camper in a driveway, before securing an apartment in low-income housing. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English from the University of Montana in Missoula. We hold major institutions accountable and expose wrongdoing. Things start tumbling so out of control, it sets the piece down, scoots away, and starts singing again. . "[14] Katy Read of The Star Tribune suggests, "The next time you hear someone say they think poor people are lazy, hand them a copy of Maid. Her ex-husband, Matt Boland, was arrested on a strangulation felony, one of the first in Montana. Abuse doesnt always develop over long periods of time. We read it in my bed at night, then she says, Can I please have your arm? So I stretch it out for her to use as a pillow. She felt like her friends did not want to hear about the struggles of her life over and over, and she isolated herself from her closest companions. Instead of learning to walk in a halfway house, as Story did, Maddy grows up in a subsidized apartment. Hed been following me around the house, telling me my face looked awful, that I brought a stench of sadness into the room. [28][29] They both have two children from previous relationships. The limited series, based on Stephanie Land's best-selling memoir, . I also think I've learned how important it is to be able to advocate for others. But I at least hoped that if they were listening to me they would start listening to others and it would open doors for more marginalized people to talk about their lives. While we see Alex in the show constantly putting on a brave face to her many clients and acquaintances, we don't see much of the reality, which is a lot of time completely alone. Stephanie Land and her husband Tim Faust tied the knot in 2019 in a private wedding. He hasnt lived with us in almost six months. Dont you miss him? she would ask me, almost desperately. Yes. She graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor's in English and Creative Writing in 2014. The limited series stars Margaret Qualley (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) as a single mother who, after fleeing from her abusive ex, is forced to take a low-paying job with a cleaning service that caters to the wealthy. In my New York Times bestselling memoir MAID, I tell my story of juggling several housecleaning clients while working my way through college as a single mother. Shell be crowned alongside her husband King Charles at the Coronation. I wrote statements. No. It costs a lot to be poor (in dollars and time). For a couple of months, she woke up at night, crying and confused, wondering why her mom and stepdad werent there at the same time any more. Then I Hired a Maid. First published on October 29, 2021 / 5:23 PM. CBS News/Stephanie Land, Netflix Before her memoir "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive" was even an idea, Stephanie Land was a single mother who had escaped an abusive. Now Her Book About It Is a Best-Seller", "How Netflix's 'Maid' Differs from Stephanie Land's Book", "The Crushing Logistics of Raising a Family Paycheck to Paycheck", "Barack Obama Shares His 2019 Summer Reading List", "From Middle Class to Homeless: A Mother's Unapologetic Memoir", "Margaret Qualley Stars Opposite Her Real-Life Mother Andie MacDowell in Trailer for Netflix's Maid", "This Drama About A Single Mom Is A Top Show On Netflix", "How 'Maid' Set a Record That Didn't Have Anything to Do with Netflix Numbers", "Author of best-selling 'Maid' takes on college in 'Class', "Party of six. But in 2008 (amid the Great Recession), most middle-class Americans were just waking up to this realization including Land. Except for some extra cash here and there and some live lobsters, she doesnt receive any other perks from serving the rich. Police officers photographed the bruises around her neck. When I told my husband to move out at the end of spring, Coraline was about to turn four, and she started sleeping with me again. For example, Land says that when she started, the agencies charged clients $20 per hour and she was paid $8.55 an hour, which was right around the minimum wage in Washington state at the time. In addition to student loans, she had paid for college with the help of Pell grants. My whole life felt like a lie, but I was good at telling the story, even to me. In Alexs world, she isnt harassed every time she uses her EBT card (electronic benefit transfer card for SNAP/food stamps) at the grocery store; she isnt told, youre welcome by her closest friends when she confides in them about government assistant programs. Land ended her dependence on welfare after she graduated from the University of Montana. The homeless shelter that Land and her daughter lived in for a short period of time came with a four-page list of rules, including no visitors. Though we do get a quick flash of a sign of rules for transitional housing, these kinds of regulations for being low income are not covered in Maid. And its because they took a true interest in learning, and used their own experiences, to truly understand how it feels to be food, work, and housing insecure," she wrote. She seems to live in a constant state of hustle-and-bustle, meeting people through work and assistance programs. "Thank you for the friendship, for putting up with my anxious texts, and the hours and hours of hard work you put into making this happen in the best way possible.". But I dole out lessons in empathy as much as I can, [which is] not only my biggest challenge but my goal in being a parent. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This is different than what we see with Alex in Maid, where welfare is depicted as part of going through the motions, not as something deeply broken that is affecting millions of people. I kind of saw that happening leading up to it and it terrified me. This differs from the memoir, in which Stephanie Land describes her mother as living much farther away. But Poverty Never Left Me", Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, "The Brutal Economy of Cleaning Other People's Messes, for $9 an Hour", "Maid's Tell-All Reveals Dirty Secrets of America's Middle Class". When the detectives measured a second time, 24 hours later, the swelling had increased a full half inch. The series does not really touch on this systematic issue, but focuses more on Alex's individual struggle. Stephanie Land was 28 years old when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her daughter Mia, who now goes by her middle name Story. During the series, we don't see Alex at the grocery store often. -NPRIn her Vox article, Land says that she'd check how many pills a client took in two weeks in order to find out if their prescriptions had turned into addictions. There was a part of me that knew why they were listening. "He was proud of me," she says. Netflix owes us answers after that ending. I know how grueling the job can be, and I swore I'd never ask. They were mentioned very briefly in a sentence in the book, but when I got to hang out with the creators, they all came to Washington and did the "Trauma tour." She lived in Europe with a husband who was much younger (he was only seven years older than Stephanie). Among all her clients, none of them became her friend as Regina does for Alex. The seven-part series was adapted from Stephanie Land's 2019 bestselling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, . A Maid fact-check reveals that the real Stephanie Land was 28 when she was pregnant with her daughter Mia (today, Mia goes by her middle name, Story). In reality, Land posted very openly about her struggles on Facebook and started a blog, which inspired her community to spring into action. It was an unplanned pregnancy and she wasn't married to the baby's father. She was also able to take out the maximum amount of student loans to make ends meet, which gave her more of a cushion, and eventually, helped her move to Missoula to attend the University of Montana. [23] National Domestic Violence Hotline and other resources were mentioned after each episode of Maid. The first sentence of Stephanie Land's memoir states, "My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter." The reason why I wanted to write the book that I did was because I never saw myself in any form of media. [27], Stephanie Land is married to Tim Faust and they live as a blended family with four children. She documents her home life across her social media accounts. And she worked as a nurse. It follows Alex, a young woman who leaves her abusive boyfriend and navigates the American welfare system while getting whatever work she can cleaning houses. During a severe winter storm, one neighbor even reached out on Facebook to offer her a sled for her daughter to play with. However, she had dreamed of becoming a writer since she was 10 and knew she wouldn't be a happy mom if she gave up that dream. Yes. Yes. When the couple met and married he worked at KOLD, they divorced in 2006. There were a lot of memes going around at the time about how people should be drug-tested for welfare, and a lot of my friends would post on Facebook and social media some type of hatred for people on food stamps. Before the Netflix series premiered, Land posted a long message on Instagram about her feelings about the release and the creative process. Like Margaret Qualley's character in the Netflix series, she at first rejected the idea. Netflix's latest hit drama, Maid, has become a favorite among fans for its candid and watchable depiction of a mother fighting to take care of her daughter.Based on Stephanie Land's 2019 memoir . She does not mention her as being undiagnosed bipolar. Its also nearly impossible to socialize when youre a single mother living in poverty who has the time to go on a date between the rental assistance seminars, work, dinner, and then bath time with her daughter? She would eventually ask her husband to move out permanently and a divorce would soon follow. The adorable couple tied the knot in an intimate wedding ceremony attended by close ones, including his three grown children. Its only a real story if people fall in love at the end. I hated it that Id done that, that Id kept what hed done to me hidden as much as possible. Stephanie Land on Twitter: "Two years husband and wife. He told her he wanted to bring the landlord with him, a man who Stephanie says was "a very intimidating figure to me." I mean, I'm a White person. I am a success story. In the series, Alex doesnt want to accept help from her father because a) they are semi-estranged, and b) she eventually remembers that he abused her mother but in reality, Lands father was struggling himself after the housing crash and couldnt afford to feed two more people. But it starts rolling too fast. Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive (2019). He said a judge would make me move to Portland if I tried to . The Three Car Crashes That Changed My Life, "I lived on $6 a day with a 6-year-old and a baby on the way. In exchange for their listening ears, we fed them apples and sandwiches. When Land first met and married her now-estranged husband, she says he was supportive of her writing career. People have blamed my tumble into poverty on an unexpected pregnancy. "I did in a couple," Land says of snooping in medicine cabinets. Id spent Mothers Day weekend in a dark motel room after that. There typically arent any magical, wealthy benefactors waiting to make your life easier. I laughed at the ridiculousness and asked him if he was serious he knew I was a writer, after all. Based on the best-selling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land, the series tells the story of. How have you grown both as a mother and your own person? The program then added $10 for produce, except potatoes, because people tend to fry them or add lots of butter. If she went over $10 in fresh produce, the check would be void. The heart-wrenching show has captivated fans, who have been asking whetherMaidis based on a true story. Three months after we got married, I called the police for help. Someone like them. Throughout this whole process of giving my story to the hands of strangers, Land wrote in a recent Instagram post, I had to force myself to trust theyll do it justice. Featuring a foreword from Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich, the memoir begins when an unplanned pregnancy upsets the then-28-year-old Lands college plans, forcing her to spend her days as a domestic worker and attend night classes to continue pursuing her degree. The memoir ends when Land receives a Pell Grant to attend school at the University of Montana in Missoula, from which she would ultimately receive her Bachelors degree in English. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Her daughter was constantly in and out of doctors offices for chronic ear infections and upper-respiratory infections, but she personally couldnt afford to see a doctor for her chronic pain, sinus infections, and constant coughs. John, Molly, and Erin have spent so much time getting to know me and Story, and truly care about usalmost how I imagine family members would.. All the nudity of porn, but with the plot and storylines of mainstream film. Heres how it works. Though the additional characters in the story are mostly fictionalizedthe book only lightly touches on her ex and her parents, and she doesn't mention a client similar to Reginamany of the events actually happened, including Story's pony party and the car accident. Actress Margaret Qualley turned 26 during the filming of the Netflix Maid series. ", into her bestselling memoir. She was eventually able to quit the agency entirely. After calling the Domestic Violence Hotline and reaching her usual caseworker, Stephanie was encouraged to call the police. & CLASS (out 10/23!). She revealed that the show's creator, Molly Smith Metzler, and executive producers John Wells and Erin Jontow spent time with her and Story to learn more about her experiences. 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