True You by Janet Jackson Read Free Book Online

for animals, a love that I share deeply. It seemed to make sense, and the majority of the family went along with the program. Mother agreed and felt it was not only important to exclude animal flesh from our diet but to employ colonic treatments on a weekly basis. The idea was that the bacteria and toxins that accumulate in the colon have to be flushed out. Later I would learn that many doctors disagree with this method, feeling that the body’s digestive system naturally eliminates those toxins. There is a school of thought, however, that maintaining a healthy colon requires extraordinary measures. For many years, our family adopted those measures. And as an obedient child, I didn’t argue or challenge the plan. As a young girl, that wasn’t my nature.
    Because I loved Mike and cherished the times he and I spent together, I was more than willing to embrace his diet. That became another bond between us. Before he recorded
Off the Wall
, he could go out in public without security. People recognized him and asked for autographs, but it was still manageable and not intrusive. We’d go out alone.
    He’d drive us from the San Fernando Valley to a vegetarian restaurant run by Sikhs on Third Street in Los Angeles, called the Golden Temple. We’d eat salads and drink Yogi tea. The meals were delicious, and we stuffed ourselves. I remember thinking—or hoping—that overeating healthy food wouldn’t get me fat the way nonhealthy food might. I still worried, however, that healthy or not, I was too fat and that my eating was out of control. But these were private worries; I didn’t mention them to Mike. At the same time, Mike, who had problems with acne, never discussed that with me. All of us in our family—brothers, sisters, mother, and father—kept such thoughts to ourselves.
    There were also wonderful spontaneous trips that Mike and I would make to give food to the homeless. We’d buy a bunch of takeout meals and drive around the city, stopping whenever we saw someone holding a sign asking for help. That was Mike’s idea of a good time—simply give to the poor on a personal basis. All this happened when I was still a preteen and Mike was not yet twenty. Our closeness meant the world to me. There was still taunting about my booty or my inability to trim down, but that was more than compensated by our private time together. I saw no problems on the horizon.
    “I did,” said my sister La Toya years later. “I always knew you’d have weight issues.”
    “Why?” I asked.
    “The teasing got to you. I saw it in your face. You might have said, ‘Sticks and stones might hurt my bones, but names will never harm me,’ but I knew that the names were harming you.”

    Mike named me “Dunk” and we shared every dream, every confidence. I was his little sister; he always knew that I had his back.

Escapade
    I was eleven and on break from
Good Times
when Mike invited me to New York. It was 1977, and the height of disco madness. La Toya was also there. Excitedly, Mike told me about this club called Studio 54. Nightclubs weren’t anything new for me. My siblings had been taking me to clubs for years. I was used to being theonly kid at the party. But from the minute we arrived, I knew this was different.
    Long lines of people, dressed in fabulous outfits, were waiting to get in. Once we were spotted, we were whisked right inside. The place was mammoth. It was packed. Strobe lights flashing. People sniffing flour.
    “Why are they doing that?” I asked, not understanding that it wasn’t flour they were sniffing. No one answered me. Everyone was too busy looking.
    I was introduced to the owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager. I saw Liza Minnelli. I recognized her from her films and knew that her mother was Judy Garland. I also knew the films of her father, Vincente Minnelli. I also recognized the man she was with—Halston. It was a dazzling, amazing scene. I don’t think I said a single word the entire night.
    I felt