A Conversation with "Maid" Author, Stephanie Land

The TV adaptation of Stephanie Land's memoir "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and A Mother's Will to Survive" premiers today! In honor of this exciting news, we are throwing it back to our enlightening conversation with Stephanie from 2020. Enjoy and don't forget to catch 'Maid' on Netflix! Stephanie Land's bestselling debut memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive recounts her harrowing saga as a single mom navigating the poverty trap. Her unflinching and inspiring testimony exposes the physical, economic and social brutality that so many face- all while radiating a parent's hope and resilience. At age 28, Land's dream of attending college and becoming a writer are deferred when a summer fling turns into an unplanned pregnancy. After facing domestic abuse, and lacking any form of a reliable safety net, she checks into a homeless shelter with her 7 month old daughter. She begins the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for food stamps and subsidized housing, and starts cleaning houses for $9/hr. Bogged down by patronizing government processes and low wages, Land illustrates the trauma of grasping for stability from a rigged system, and demonstrates how hard work doesn't always pay off. In a constant state of scarcity, a single unexpected costs- as simple as a car repair- jeopardizes Land's carefully calculated budget, and shows the impossible slipperiness of escaping poverty. After years of barely scraping by, Land graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Montana and began a career as a freelance writer. She writes about economic and social justice, domestic abuse, chronic illness and motherhood.