Kerry Washington is celebrating a milestone birthday in a major way.
Just as the Golden Globe Award-winning actress hit her 45th year, she announced her first-ever memoir, set to be released by Little, Brown Spark on September 26.
In her upcoming memoir, titled THICKER THAN WATER, Washington gives readers an intimate look into both her public and private realities. Covering her life as an artist, an advocate, an entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a Black woman, the book chronicles her upbringing in New York City and her life’s journey thus far.
“I did it. I wrote a book,” she wrote to her 7 million Instagram followers on her January 31st birthday, followed by a screaming emoji.
“Writing a memoir is, by far, the most deeply personal project I have ever taken on,” Washington told PEOPLE. “I hope that readers will receive it with open hearts and I pray that it offers new insights and perspectives, and invites people into deeper compassion — for themselves and others.”
According to a press release, Washington reveals a series of challenges and setbacks for the first time in its pages, detailing how she effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career, and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy.
Though she’s widely beloved for her roles in titles like Shonda Rhimes’ political crime drama Scandal and more recently the hit Hulu limited series Little Fires Everywhere, the actress rarely gives the public much of a peek into her personal life with husband Nnamdi Asomugha or their children, Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha, Caleb Kelechi Asomugha, and a teen daughter.
THICKER THAN WATER is slated for release on September 26.