You Can Heal Your Life, Paperback

Louise Hay was born to an underprivileged mother who later wed her abusive stepfather. She was sexually assaulted by a neighbour when she was around five. At the age of fifteen, she left high school without receiving a diploma, got pregnant, and, on her sixteenth birthday, gave up her unborn daughter for adoption. She relocated to Chicago, where she performed menial employment, until relocating to New York in 1950. She then took a new name and started working as a fashion model. Working for Pauline Trigere, Oleg Cassini, and Bill Blass, she was successful in this endeavour. She wed Andrew Hay in 1954, and after fourteen years of marriage, Louise was horrified to learn that he had moved on with another lady. Hay claimed to have discovered the First.