Little House Star News: Abuse

For a generation of Americans she was the little girl we all loved to hate, on Little House on the Prairie. But now Alison Arngrim is making fans have much warmer feelings of sympathy as the former child star reveals the history of abuse that hid behind that child's face.

Arngrim has just released her autobiography, "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated," telling the story of how she dealth with growing up as one of the most hated characters on TV as a kid. But she also reveals for the first time how she was abused in real life by a member of her family.

Telling how her career as Nellie Olesen helped her cope with the child abuse, Alison says "[Nellie] was a girl I grew to love,' she writes. 'She got me out of my house when I thought there was no escape. She transformed me from a shy, abused little girl afraid of her own shadow to the in-your-face, outspoken, politically active, big-mouthed bitch I am today. To be 11 or 12 and have everyone call you a bitch to your face every day of your life is very strange, I've been spat upon, beaten and pelted with garbage at a Christmas parade. I was beaten up at a personal appearance."

Alison now works as a standup comic, and you really have to admire how she overcame the odds and has stayed on her two feet all this time! Many don't fare so well dealing with fame even by itself.

Little House Star News: Abuse
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Little House on the Prairie was loved around the world for its gentle drama and quaint family stories. But now cast member Alison Arngrim is lifting the lid on the more sensational details of life behind the scenes of the U.S. TV series in new memoir Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. In it, Arngrim reveals that as a child, she was the victim of traumatic abuse at the hands of a family member. Playing scheming manipulative brat Nellie Oleson helped her deal with the anger.

Little House Star News: Abuse