6 Of The Best Memoirs By Non-Celebrities With Important Stories To Tell

Content Warning: This article features discussions of racism and sexual violence.

We live in a world where everyone thinks they have a riveting story to tell — especially celebrities. Although there are celebrities we're begging to write memoirs, every time you turn around, another celebrity has written a book no one asked for. Even worse, approximately 80% of books by celebrities are ghostwritten, just so a celebrity can see their name on a book jacket and reap the financial benefits. 

But on the flip side are memoirs written by non-famous people with an important story to tell. It's here that you find real grit and suffering, as opposed to hyped-up glam and woe-is-me tales from people who are far removed from the systemic pain of day-to-day life. As James Baldwin told Life Magazine in 1963, "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive," and that's exactly what we should be taking from a well-written memoir. Especially when it's written by someone who isn't famous. 

Looking for an authentic memoir that's worth your time? If so, then these memoirs by non-celebrities are some of the best out there. Add them to your list of memoirs to read in 2025, and you'll have a thought-provoking collection to change you for the better.

In January 2015, Stanford student Brock Turner sexually assaulted fellow student Chanel Miller. Although two students were able to intervene, leading to Turner's arrest, the case highlighted the ongoing privilege afforded to White men in the U.S.. Not only was Judge Aaron Persky's sentencing disgustingly lenient, but Turner's father defended his actions, saying the punishment of six months in jail and three years' probation was too much for "20 minutes of action." An enraging comment. Before Turner's sentencing, Chanel Miller, known then as Emily Doe, read an impact statement that quickly went viral. Those who had endured sexual assault found themselves in her words, and eventually, Miller came forward with her book, "Know My Name: A Memoir."

Beautifully written, Miller details her life before and after that night, and the price of anonymity versus being known in such a high-profile case. "For so long, I worried that to be known meant to be undone," Miller wrote for Time in August 2020. "The more they see you, the more they can use against you. For years I worried this was true. Upon finishing this book, I knew it was not ... I often question where men like the defense attorney get their confidence, while I'm the one who struggles with self-loathing. How they move, unassailable, through the world, while I remain hidden. I decided that for as long as they're out there, I will be out there too." Miller has stayed fearlessly vocal ever since.

Reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls is basically like getting gut-punched repeatedly. But sometimes you need to feel that to put your own life into perspective. Or, even more importantly, to know you're not alone. 

The first part of her memoir discusses running into her homeless mother in New York City, but the story really begins when she's three years old, trying to cook hot dogs in a trailer in Arizona. Too young to be at the stove, Walls ends up so severely burned that she goes to the hospital for skin grafts. Knowing they can't pay the medical bills, Walls's father, Rex, an alcoholic who dreams of getting his life together, takes Walls out of the hospital and they skip town — just one of a series of times they run out on their financial responsibilities.

As riddled as Walls's story is with poverty, alcoholism, sexual assault, and bullying, it's also one of resilience. Walls and her siblings suffered because of their parents' choices, but in a country where an estimated 37.9 million people live below the poverty line as of 2022, she's certainly not alone. It's just that in Walls's case, she was able to break the cycle despite having so many cards stacked against her. Also, it's worth noting that "The Glass Castle" pops up on banned book lists frequently, so if you're anti-censorship and believe in the First Amendment, this is a great choice for exercising your rights. 

When it comes to writing honestly about race relations in the U.S., Alice Walker's "The Way Forward Is with A Broken Heart" is so devastatingly heartbreaking that you'll find yourself not sobbing through the pages. Although her most well-known book, "The Color Purple," won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983, her memoir about her marriage to civil rights activist Melvyn R. Leventhal is simply extraordinary. After the two married in New York City in 1967, they moved to Mississippi, where they were the first legally married interracial couple in the state.

Walker's memoir is a compilation of intimate, poignant stories of their life and love against a very racist South. It's also about the breakdown of a marriage and what she was able to take from their combined experience. "These are the stories that came to me to be told after the close of a magical marriage to an extraordinary man that ended in a less-than-magical divorce," Walker writes in the introduction. "I found myself unmoored, unmated, ungrounded in a way that challenged everything I'd ever thought about human relationships. Situated squarely in that terrifying paradise called freedom, precipitously out on so many emotional limbs, it was as if I had been born; and in fact I was being reborn as the woman I was to become." While the format is a bit unconventional, true to Walker's unique style, it's a beautiful, devastatingly stunning read. 

Like all the memoirs on this list, "Lit: A Memoir" by Mary Karr is about survival. Although Karr has released three memoirs, "Lit" really stands out. Not just because of her writing, but because of the story: a woman struggling to hold it together despite her raging alcoholism and what it took to get sober. Even if you're not one of the 15 million U.S. adults struggling with alcohol abuse, you probably know someone who is, and this memoir intimately shows the desperation and suffering that comes with that addiction. So much so, that it's likely to inspire a more mindful approach to your own drinking habits.

As the daughter of two alcoholics — something she writes about in "The Liars' Club" — Karr also found herself battling alcohol addiction as she got older, which worsened after the birth of her son. It wouldn't be until a car accident that almost ended her life, a stint in a mental intuition, and a very volatile and toxic relationship with fellow writer, David Foster Wallace (who committed suicide in 2008, a year before "Lit" was published), that Karr realized it was time to get help. That help came in the form of religion, which even shocked Karr. "If you'd told me ... I'd wind up whispering my sins in the confessional ... I would've laughed myself cockeyed. More likely pastime? Pole dancer. International spy. Drug mule. Assassin," Karr wrote in "Lit." It's a rocky ride, but worth the read. 

Because you can never read too many heartbreaking memoirs, it's time to saddle up for Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Published in 1969, the memoir is about Angelou's life up until she was about 17. While there are light moments, there's also a lot of darkness. Like any young Black girl coming of age in the U.S. — whether it was during Angelou's childhood or today's generation — there's a lot of pain, racism, and deep-seated prejudice around every corner.

If that everyday experience wasn't hard enough, Angelou writes in detail about being raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was eight. While she doesn't linger on this particular scene, it does deeply affect how she sees herself and the woman she becomes: someone who learns to process her trauma through the written word. It was also this incident, and the murder of the man who raped her, that led to Angelou not speaking for five years. As she wrote, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone."

During her lifetime, Angelou published seven autobiographies, as well as several collections of essays and poetry. As television became more popular, she also contributed her writing to TV series and movies. While that's the case, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" remains her rawest piece of work.

To be quite candid, there was hesitation behind choosing "The Diary of a Young Girl." Many had to read it in school, and those who didn't are probably familiar with its content. But because this is a list of the best memoirs with important stories to tell, Frank's story — especially considering what we're currently seeing in the U.S. and across the world — is a memoir we should all be revisiting.

While you don't need a PhD in history to know what became of the Franks, her words about those 761 days in which she and her family hid in the Secret Annex are a must-read. Not to get too political, but we're watching fascism taking hold in the U.S. in real time. Frank lived that reality, watching it all unfold from her hidden space on the Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam.

"Terrible things are happening outside," Frank wrote in her diary. "At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes ... Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone ... Everyone is scared ... the end is nowhere in sight." If those images that Frank writes about sound too familiar, then you owe it to history and the uncertain future ahead to read (or reread) this one.