An alternative subtitle to Rated X, Maitland Ward's memoir, could be How an Ex-Disney Sitcom Star Found Happiness and Self-Respect in the Porn Industry. Ward was cast when just a junior in high school in the daytime TV soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. She engaged in an emotionally unhealthy relationship with one of her costars that slowly gnawed away at her self-esteem. After two years on the soap, her character was raped, kidnapped and nearly burned alive before being written out of the series. She became a series regular two years later on the ABC/Disney sitcom Boy Meets World and struggled to find roles when the series ended. During this time period, she investigated her sexuality with men, women, threesomes, toys and BDSM. Her account of it all does not shirk the details; some of this memoir reads like a letter to Penthouse magazine.
Acting roles dried up. "To be expendable is to be a woman in Hollywood," Ward writes. She attended Comic-Con-like events, which led to cosplay and the awakening of her exhibitionist desires. She also took erotic cosplay photos that she sold online, which led to the making of X-rated films--all with the support and encouragement of her husband. Her role in 2019's Drive--a plot-driven, X-rated film requiring acting--won her acclaim and awards recognition, created a mainstream media firestorm and set her up financially for life.
An aggressively sexual memoir not for the faint of heart, Rated X is a gripping, empowering and contrarian narrative of finding self-worth and escaping victimhood by embracing the porn industry. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant