The title of Paris Drake’s new self-help book reads like a mission statement for all self-help books: If You Knew Better You Would Do Better.
On Saturday, May 15 the model turned author will host a musical book-signing at St. Louis City Hall at 7 p.m. called A Night for the Arts. The free event will feature poets, painters and singers such as Coco Soul and Niko Smith.
“I’m going to entertain you,” Drake said of the event.
In her book, the St. Louis native aims to inform you – and warn you.
“The entertainment industry is rough. A lot of people see the surface and have no idea about the story,” Drake said.
Working in the entertainment industry, she knows how cold the industry can be. Drake has survived it through prayer and her family.
But her book is not for aspiring entertainers only. In fact, the model believes young women need to realize that inner beauty is more important than outer beauty.
“All women have issues. This book highlights those issues and attempts to correct those issues,” Drake said.
“I feel like I’m strong enough to say, ‘I know what you are going through; let me show you how not to go through that again.’”
Three years in the making, If You Knew Better You Would Do Better attempts to show readers that many women have been knocked down and gotten back up.
“No matter what life throws at you, you can get back up again. It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down,” Drake said.
One of the issues Drake addresses is “Keeping Up with the Joneses.”
“We as African American women go into debt attempting to try to be something we saw on TV or try to be glamorized. A lot of people are actually living on credit,” Drake said.
Drake wants African-American women to maintain good credit and financial stability.
Another chapter, “A Closed Mouth Don’t Get Fed,” describes how people have ideas to create certain things, publish books and make recipes yet do not follow through.
“We don’t voice our opinions on what we want and need,” Drake said.
The last page of the book expresses support for breast cancer awareness with the help of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The book provides steps on how to do a breast self-examination properly. Drake is an advocate of breast cancer, having had loved ones affected by breast cancer.
Breast cancer awareness information will be provided at the book-signing event 7 p.m. Saturday, May 15 at City Hall. “The more information that is provided, the better we’ll be,” Drake said.
To purchase Drake’s book, If You Knew Better You Would Do Better, online, go to parisdrakeinc.com.
