Reality TV Star Toya’s Rough Road Becomes ‘Priceless Inspirations’ In New Cautionary Tale of Sex, Motherhood and Growing Up

found enviable fame and fortune, so Toya’s new memoir surprises readers with its

unexpected message to young girls: Don’t do it my

way.

Antonia Johnson Carter – best known by the mononym Toya

and star of the hit TV reality series “Tiny and Toya” – has written a life story

that honestly faces the tears, fears and insecurities that rode shotgun on her

drive to stardom.

“Priceless Inspirations” (Farrah Gray Publishing)

offers Toya’s own life choices as a backdrop for advice to young girls on sex,

relationships, motherhood and growing up. Getting pregnant at 14 gave Toya

valuable perspective on the perils of growing up too fast.

Rap music star

Lil Wayne fathered Toya’s daughter, Reginae, and wed Toya seven years later, but

the marriage lasted only two years. Another lesson learned.

“That

relationship has brought me a lot of love and a lot of pain.” Toya said. “Right

now, my main focus is family.”

The protective cocoon of family is

something Toya spent most of her life without. Abandoned by her parents as a

child, she was passed from family member to family member as her mother sank

deeper into drug addiction. Feeling unloved and unwelcome, Toya fell into the

arms of a 15-year-old rising musical star – Dwayne Michael Carter, now known as

Lil Wayne – and soon was pregnant.

In “Priceless Inspirations,” Toya

takes the reader through the pain of struggling to raise a child while still a

child herself, without the benefit of guidance from her own mother. Using words

she recorded in journals as a teen – and the wisdom she has gained in the years

since – Toya bares her own soul for the benefit of today’s young

girls.

Toya’s roller coaster saga continues: While her mom is now a

recovering addict, ex-husband Lil Wayne is serving a one-year prison sentence at

Riker’s Island for gun possession charges.

When not writing or performing

in her TV series, Toya volunteers to help at-risk teens and teen mothers. She is

also developing a children’s clothing line inspired by her daughter Reginae. The

clothing line will feature fashion-forward, affordable loungewear and

accessories for teens.

Farrah Gray Publishing will be publishing Antonia “Toya”

Carter’s “Priceless Inspirations” in February 2011. Grammy Award-winning rapper

Lil Wayne is writing the Foreword.