By Elizabeth Borino
Mia Tyler is the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, but that is not the most interesting or important thing about her. She has not only acted and modeled, but she has also recently released a biography of her life entitled, “Creating Myself: How I Learned That Beauty Comes in All Shapes, Sizes and Packages, Including Me,” which she spoke about at the University last Tuesday.
According to Tyler, she did not have the typical Hollywood life. She was quick to point out that despite having a famous father, her life was far from charmed. Tyler recounted “having a nice house, but needing to steal firewood from the neighbors because [her] dad spent all [their] money on drugs.” She goes on to describe her mother as a “crazy” woman who never held a job.
Tyler said that her relationship with her parents had been strained after not speaking to her mother, who was diagnosed with brain cancer, for eight months. This was the most trying time in her life because she forced herself to care for a woman who abused her as a child.
When her mother died, Tyler said she used it as inspiration to create a better life for herself. She learned then that only she could “create the world that [she] wanted to live in.”
When Tyler was 10 years old, her mother decided that they needed to move from New Hampshire to New York City because “the only thing to do in New Hampshire is do drugs or get pregnant and [she] don’t want [Tyler] pregnant by the time [she was] 15.” However, as soon as they got to the city, Tyler entered a downward spiral during which she began having sex, doing drugs and eventually cutting.
Tyler said the cutting was a way to lessen the pain of her life, which she recounted was caused a debilitating loneliness and an inability to cope with the craziness of her life. She described the cutting as a drug.
“The ritual took away my pain,” Tyler said. Tyler also admitted to still being in recovery and said that she cut again as recently as this past Christmas.
Tyler said she used to be ashamed of cutting and that she would hide the scars with tattoos. Now she is using her experiences as a way to inspire conversations and comfort to other people.
Tyler has gone through many dark times in her life, but has come out on the other side and is an inspiration to others. Her mantra is, “Life is not about finding yourself, but creating yourself.”