News & Politics - Jenna Bush Pens Book About HIV Mother

CourtneyS416 · 03-06-2007, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Jenna Bush is stepping into the spotlight with her first book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, to be published this fall.

The president's daughter, 25, tells USA Today that the book is not political. Rather, the tale of a 17-year-old single mother in Panama who is living with HIV, is about "getting kids thinking and involved," she says.

Though Bush has been somewhat press shy during her father's time in office, she says "I'm willing to give up some of my anonymity" to promote her cause.

The book – aimed at teens and featuring photos by Mia Baxter, a former University of Texas classmate of Bush's – will end with a "call to action," encouraging readers to confront issues of "exclusion" that range from examining HIV discrimination to "inviting new kids to sit with them in the cafeteria," says Bush.

Bush, a former public-school teacher in Washington, D.C., who since September has served in Panama as an unpaid intern for UNICEF, says: "I'm aware that not all kids can pick up and fly to Panama. I'm very lucky."

The book, to be published by HarperCollins and whose earnings Bush says she will donate to UNICEF, grew out of her efforts on behalf of the group to "put a face on statistics" about children of extreme poverty in Central and South America.

Although Jenna accompanied her mother, Laura Bush, on a 2005 goodwill tour of Africa, her new author status should help put to rest the party image that Jenna and her twin, Barbara (who works at a New York museum), cultivated a few years ago.

In response, Jenna told the newspaper, "I care what people who know me think of me. I think they would disagree (with the image). I like to go to bed early."

And when the book is published, she'll be making the social rounds again – only, this time, to schools, libraries and bookstores. "This is not about me," says Bush, who is still in Panama, "but the kids I met here."

Source

I found this to be interesting. I think it's good that she's doing this. IMO.

Lexis · 03-06-2007, 11:13 AM

Good for her doing something to help others. I'm sure the money raised will go to go use.

migamoo · 03-06-2007, 05:48 PM

I didn't know she taught. But the book sounds interesting.

**sunnykerr** · 03-06-2007, 06:56 PM

How sick is it that, when reading that, all I can think of is to say that her energies would be better spent trying to convince her father to restore foreign AIDS aid whether or not the organizations sponsored taught about contraceptive use as opposed to just plain abstinence?

I mean, this girl is obviously doing something worthwhile with her life and... bleh. It's official, I'm a cynical witch.

migamoo · 03-06-2007, 07:43 PM

No, I know what you mean. But Bush will not send aid to those who need it if they also do abortions. It's insane. These people need the help but he just cannot look past the abortion issue.

mild toxicity · 03-06-2007, 08:35 PM

I say good for her. Chances are the young mother wasn't exactly living like a nun (though there are any number of circumstance beyond her control, such as rape or an unfaithful husband or an infusion, that could have led to her infection), yet Jenna is supporting her. She's looking past the mistakes and realizing that this poor woman is a wonderful person in desperate need of help. Perhaps I wouldn't despise the president so much if he would take a page out of his daughter's book (quite literally).

Eh, who am I kidding, I'd still loathe him.


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