Ms. American Dream

A Memoir of Making It, No Matter What

By: Patricia Williams-Lee

“America is supposed to be the land of opportunity—where any poor kid can grow up to become a millionaire. That’s the story. But I’ma tell you how it really went down.” —Ms. Pat

From the author of the acclaimed memoir Rabbit and star of BET’s The Ms. Pat Show, a heartfelt, raw, and hilarious new memoir about rising from strife to success, tackling obstacles, and celebrating your wins with a laugh.

Before she was the star of BET’s Emmy-nominated smash sitcom, The Ms. Pat Show, before the Netflix specials, sold-out tours, and critically acclaimed memoir Rabbit, Ms. Pat was a fifteen-year-old eighth-grade dropout raising two babies in one of Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods. With no mentor, no road map, and no safety net, she wasn’t chasing the American Dream. She was told it wasn’t meant for people like her.

If you’d seen her back then, you wouldn’t have bet on a happy ending.

And yet…look at her now.

In Ms. American Dream, Ms. Pat picks up where Rabbit left off—chronicling the wild, hilarious, and hard-fought climb from food stamps and Section 8 housing to television deals, Hollywood writers’ rooms, and a suburban life so comfortable her dogs’ house has its own built-in washer and dryer.

In a country where the rich get richer, and regular folks are told to “work harder,” Ms. Pat learned the rules of a system that wasn’t built for her to win. She outmaneuvered case workers, bill collectors, con artists, and hustlers. She found her place in an industry where she was told she didn’t belong.

Raw, fearless, and laugh-out-loud funny, Ms. American Dream is about more than fame. It’s about class, strategy, and reinvention.

This isn’t a Hollywood rags-to-riches fairy tale. It’s messy, complicated, and outrageously funny, because it’s true.