Missoula Author's Netflix Show Premiers Today
Today is Stephanie Land Day, which isn’t really a thing, but we’ve named it that in honor of Land, whose best-selling book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive has made it to TV screens.
It must be surreal to see yourself portrayed by actress Margot Qualley, daughter of Andie McDowell, who also stars in the show. (Qualley played the role of Pussycat in Quinten Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.)
Land is a Missoula resident and you’ll see some familiar Missoula landscapes on the show, although it was primarily filmed in British Columbia. The show is executive produced by John Wells, of Shameless fame. Producers renamed the character inspired by Land “Alex” and changed other details but the heart of the story, about a mother’s determination while surviving domestic violence and poverty, remains the same.
Her memoir details Land’s experience working as a housemaid for minimum wage and her struggle to support herself and her young daughter. Maid made it onto the New York Time’s Best Seller’s list and was chosen by former President Barack Obama’s 2019 Summer Reading List. He said the book is, “A single mother’s personal, unflinching look at America’s class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work.”
Land continues to write about poverty, parenting, and social justice, but she doesn’t continue to clean houses. She recently told KPAX-TV: “My favorite thing, currently, is being able to tip like 40 or 50%, and I like to leave a tip big enough that their co-workers are going to hear about it. That's my goal.”
Land picked Missoula as her home base to write and advocate. Her book was published in January 2019, and she writes on her website: “I aspire to use my stories to expose the reality of what it’s like to pursue the myth of the American Dream while being held back at the poverty line. Too often these stories aren’t being told.
“I want to change that.
“Every day, over 2.5 million nannies, house cleaners and care workers do the work of caring and cleaning in our homes. The majority of these workers are women, mostly women of color, who immigrated here in hope of a better life. They take care of what is most important to us, yet they are often the least valued and most vulnerable.”
Others on the show have ties to Missoula. McDowell, who plays Alex’s on-screen mother, used to own a log cabin and 457-acre ranch here until she sold it in 2000. It is for sale again, listed for $7.75 million.