TOYA CARTER SAYS SHE'S NOT A BABY MONSTER!

VIBE: Your new book Priceless Inspiration is part memoire part motivational. What made you want to put your story out there?
Toya Carter: I've always written a diary since I was a little girl. That was my way of expressing myself, so I just decided to turn it into a book. After seeing how much I've grown since being a 14-year-old pregnant girl going through all of this different stuff with family, relationships, watching people I loved get hooked on drugs, domestic violence, I'd already written it down in my diary and looking back at it it inspired me to write a book. Priceless Inspiration is dedicated to those young girls whose parents try to lead them the right way and they don't listen, so maybe hearing it from one of their peers or someone they may look up to will help.

What was the toughest experience for you to write about?
I talk about my previous relationship [with Lil Wayne a little bit, but not in a tell-all way. I talk about things that I've learned from that situation and how I was looking at it at that age. When I was 14 I tried to make someone be what I wanted them to be not knowing that they had to grow up and what I was expecting out of a relationship with someone that was in the public eye and me raising my daughter and the help I wanted from them. When they gave me that financial support and not the love and attention I was looking for because when I was growing up I didn't have no one to give me love and affection and I was looking for that from that person. I open up about that a little. That was like the hardest part... involving [Wayne, but they were a part of my life so everybody who was a part of my life is in Priceless Inspiration from Wayne, to my mom, to my dad, to my brothers, to my ex-best friends, everybody.

Was it difficult because you don't want to keep connecting yourself to Wayne?
That situation is so hard. People feel like I'm going to always be connected to Wayne because that's how I was introduced into the spotlight, but I feel like I'm much more than just his baby mama. It's just crazy because everything I try to better myself it's always "That's just Wayne's baby mama." I open my store and people come to the store and it's "That's Wayne's baby mama's store" or I do my own show and it's "Wayne's baby mama got her own show now" or I write a book and it's "Oh it's a tell-all about Wayne," so I feel like I can't dodge that situation. I can see if I was sitting around waiting for Wayne to make things happen for me, but I'm making things happen for myself and I still get that stereotype. But I won't let that stop me from doing me, but it does bother me sometimes because I can't help who I fell in love with and had a kid by.

I feel that. Is that the reason why you refer to Wayne as Dream in the book?

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