Introduction (how did I get like this?) -- What I wish I'd known at ten -- The beast -- A cokehead I met in a support group for cutters -- One the nose (job) -- What I wish I'd known at twenty -- Cecilia -- A tragic bunch of basic bitches -- Would Wong Kar Wai approve that frame? -- Going downtown -- "Being the homophobia" -- My first movie -- Boy crazy -- What I wish I'd known at thirty -- Homesick -- Letter to a young filmmaker -- Like storm from X Men -- The love of my life -- You win Sundance -- Things that are happy (reasons not to kill yourself) -- Newly single -- Should I make a human or a movie? -- Hopes for my 40s

"When it comes to shame, Desiree Akhavan knows what she's talking about-whether it's winning the title of The Ugliest Girl at her high school, acquiescing to the nose job she was lovingly forced into by her Iranian parents, or losing her virginity to a cokehead she met in a support group for cutters. In You're Embarrassing Yourself, Desiree goes to the rawest places-the lifelong struggle to be at peace in one's body, the search for home as the child of immigrants, the anxious underbelly of artistic ambition-in pursuit of wisdom, catharsis, and lolz. Equal parts humorous and heartfelt, these seventeen essays chart an artist's journey from ambiguously ethnic outcast to overnight indie darling, to (somewhat) self-aware adult woman. The result is a collection that captures the pathetic lows and euphoric highs of our youth-and how to survive them"--