Bridey Thelen-Heidel
Bright Eyes-A Memoir
Bridey is tethered to her mom’s ad
diction to dangerous men who park their Harley-Davidsons in the house and kick holes in all their doors. Raised to be her mother’s keeper, rescuer, and punching bag, Bridey gets used to stuffing her life into black trash bags, hauling them between Alaska and California, and changing schools every time her mom moves in a new monster—or runs away from one. Desperately seeking the normal life she’s observed in sitcoms and her friends’ families, Bridey earns her way into a fancy, private college, where she tries to forget who she is—until her mom calls with a threat that drops Bridey to her knees. Watching doctors and police interrogate her mother at the hospital, Bridey realizes her mom has become a monster herself . . . and she doesn’t want to be saved. But Bridey does.
Bright Eyes is about the indomitable spirit of a young girl forced to be brave, required to be resilient, and conditioned to be optimistic, and how she ultimately uses the same traits that helped her to survive her mother’s chaos to create her own happily-ever-after.
Bio
Bridey Thelen-Heidel’s chaotic upbringing meant changing schools between Alaska and California more than twenty times. A Lewis and Clark College graduate, she lives in South Lake Tahoe with her husband and daughter and teaches English Literature at her alma mater.
A TEDx speaker and frequent podcast guest, Bridey performed in Listen to Your Mother NYC and is published in MUTHA Magazine and the 2023 San Francisco Writers’ Foundation Anthology. Bridey has been voted Best of Tahoe Teacher several times, and her work with LGBTQ+ students is celebrated in Read This, Save Lives and the California Teachers’ Association’s California Educator. Her memoir, Bright Eyes, will be released September 24, 2024 by SheWrites Press.
Website: bridey-thelenheidel.com
