Local author and former TV personality Angie Mizzell is showcasing her debut memoir, Girl in the Spotlight Oct. 5 at a special book release party in Mount Pleasant. Mizzell told the Charleston City Paper that this heartfelt work is very much a coming-of-age story — and that writing it was absolutely essential for her to move on from her past.
“It’s about how I unknowingly used success and fame to fill a void,” she said. “The book answers the questions: How do you let go of a dream that is tied up in your very identity? And who will you be without it?”
It was while growing up in Hanahan and watching the local news that Mizzell first became enamored with the semi-famous folks involved in that industry. Several close encounters solidified her on-camera ambitions.
“The anchors here in Charleston are hometown celebrities, and yet we feel like we know them because they show up in our living rooms each day,” Mizzell said. “When I was in kindergarten, I saw sports anchor Warren Peper in a department store. He smiled and said hello, and I was so in awe that I couldn’t speak.”
When Mizzell was in middle school, she happened upon weatherman Bill Walsh at Pizza Hut and slipped him a note written on a napkin asking why the sky is blue.
“He walked over to my table and explained the answer. I don’t remember what he said exactly, but I do remember how his kindness made me feel,” Mizzell said. “I wanted to be that sort of person in my community.”
After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a journalism degree, Mizzell returned to the Lowcountry and deftly positioned herself as one of the brightest lights in the regional broadcasting business. Most notably, Mizzell served as morning anchor for Channel 5 and later as senior reporter for Channel 2. When she was 25 years old, she sat down with an agent who promised to take her career to the next level. That’s when Mizzell realized she needed to be honest with herself about her ambitions — and what she was running from in pursuing them.
Telling the truth
At the peak of her popularity, Mizzell realized that being famous for telling other people’s tales wasn’t quite as satisfying as she had previously imagined. All the while, she’d been deliberately putting off confronting her own backstory.
Mizzell soon opted to leave behind everything she thought she wanted so she could address some unfinished business involving childhood trauma and a profound sense of loss. That intense journey of self-discovery and reinvention is at the core of Mizzell’s highly emotional opus.
“Letting go is a key theme in my memoir. Sometimes we hold on longer than we should because we’re afraid of the unknown and afraid to change. So it was interesting to discover that the process of writing this book and seeing it all the way through is the thing that healed me,” she said. “As it turns out, holding on — even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard — can save you too.”
Mizzell credits other women writers who have “dared to tell the truth about their lives’’ as the inspirations behind this endeavor. Her favorites include Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, Glennon Doyle, Sue Monk Kidd and Ashley C. Ford.
Mizzell said her training as a journalist made for a relatively easy transition into the role of author.
“As a journalist, I have built-in researching skills, so I was able to fact-check many of my memories,” she said. “I relied on conversations with others who lived the story alongside me to help me tell a three-dimensional story. The story has an arc, and the characters are well-developed. I worked very hard to tell a story from my point-of-view while considering the bigger picture of what was happening.
“No matter how hard you try to tell the truth, memories are subjective,” she added. “In memoir, it’s more important to work through the layers to get to the emotional truth and tell a deeper story, and through many, many revisions, I think I did that.”
Now that her book is finally finished, Mizzell is mainly hoping that her real-life chronicles will have a positive impact on others.
“My mission is to inspire deep conversations that help people step away from false identities, face grief and loss, and choose mindful presence over external ambition so they can create authentic, aligned and purposeful lives.”
Free tickets to the Girl in the Spotlight release party, which takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 5 at 665 Johnnie Dodds Blvd., can be accessed via Eventbrite. Purchase the book
at angiemizzell.com.
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