Jennifer Hudson Essay Example for Free

Jennifer Hudson Essay Jennifer Hudsons I Got This is a personal memoir of her life, from her early childhood to her current life. Jennifer talks about her journey to stardom including her challenges, tragedies, and her triumphs. Throughout the book Jennifer continuously talks about how her weight had kept her from getting the parts she would audition for. However, once she lost the weight many doors were open for her. She also gives high praises to Weightwatchers for helping her lose over 80 pounds. Jennifer Hudson made it clear that she was always comfortable with her body and only lost the weight so that she could be a healthy mother for her son. She did not lose the weight for anybody else but for herself and her son. This book was published in January 2012. Jennifer Hudson was born September 12, 1981, in the Englewood area of Chicago. She was the third child of her parents of her parents, Darnell Hudson Donnerson and Samuel Simpson. She was raised in a single parent home with her brother, Jason Hudson, and her sister, Julia Hudson, by her mother. As a little girl Jennifer was very small, so small that you could see her ribs through her shirts. Her mother took her to the doctor because she thought something was wrong with her. Being skinny was not common in the Hudson family. You see food was a central focus for the majority of all the Hudson family gatherings. Jennifer’s best friend and personal assistant is a gay guy named Walter. She met Walter in the sixth grade and they have been best friends ever since. The first time he heard her sing was in music class and from that day he has been her number one fan. Walter made it his personal goal to make Jennifer a star. During her high school years she would sing in different contests and talent shows all over Chicago that Walter would sign her up for; soon thereafter he began booking performances ranging from weddings to funerals for Jennifer. At one point she was in a singing group, with two other girls called Final Notice, but this didn’t last long. They kept her around, as long as they did because she had the most talent, but they let her go because she had the most weight. By the age of nineteen she had reached her peak weight of 236 pounds. This is around the time she realized that her weight was out of control and she was getting passed over for singing gigs because she didn’t look the part. Needless to say, she was astonished that she was being judged on her appearance and not her talent. Jennifer was signed to her first record label, Righteous Records, a Chicago based independent label. It was during this time that she was first motivated to lose weight because the head of the company pitted her against another girl on the label to lose weight. He told them that whoever lost the most weight would win money and be able to release their album first. On this journey of losing weight, Jennifer stopped eating fried foods, red meat, pizza, carbonated soda, and ice cream; which were all of her favorites. She started working out every day and twice on some days. This went on for years. She would lose weight because someone said she needed to if she wanted the job, only to regain the weight upon completion of the part. In the summer of 2002 American Idol made its television debut, Jennifer was encouraged by her mother to audition for the show. Jennifer was not impressed and did not want to have anything to do with the show, that is, until Kelly Clarkson was named the first American Idol. Although the show had sparked something in Jennifer she still resisted auditioning for the second season since she had landed a job with Disney working on a cruise ship. After eight months, away from home, performing on the ship, Jennifer had had enough and went back home. To her surprise, when she got back to Chicago Walter had two airline tickets for Atlanta to go to the audition for season three of American Idol. Being on American Idol, Jennifer had gained a great deal of exposure, which opened the door for her next gig, which was a record deal to record her first album. While she was working on this album she started hearing rumors about a new movie, which was Dreamgirls; and that the producers wanted her for the role. After auditioning twice she was chosen to play the part of Effie in the movie. She had not done any professional acting until this role and the rest is history. For the first time in her career she was told she needed to gain weight, they wanted her to gain twenty pounds so she could really look like Effie. This was a total shock to Jennifer, especially after so many years of being passed over and judged on her appearance over her talent. Well, she gained the weight and starred in her first motion picture. After the production of Dreamgirls, Jennifer returned home and started her mission to lose the weight she had gained for the role. She went right back to the only way she knew to lose weight. Eating only brown rice, chicken, and broccoli, coupled with running every day. She worked hard the entire summer losing the extra pounds only to have the producers call her, near the end of the summer, needing to get some pickup shots of her to finish the film, and oh yeah telling her to regain the weight. She refused to succumb to their request and they found a way to work around it. In September of 2008, Jennifer’s mother, brother and nephew were killed in a shooting; Jennifer stepped out of the limelight for three months. After the birth of her son, Jennifer was again around 236 pounds. This was precisely the time she made the conscience decision to make a permanent change in her life to lose weight and keep it off. She initially began this quest the only way she knew how by limiting herself to very few food choices, but then she was introduced to Weightwatchers. Eighty plus pounds later, Jennifer is pleased with her decision to give Weightwatchers a try, and now she is a spokesperson for the program.