I Wrote This for Attention

By: Lukas Gage

Narrated by: Lukas Gage

A riveting and heartwarming memoir by the actor of White Lotus and Euphoria that details his upbringing in the west coast—including a broken family, struggles with addiction, sex, borderline personality disorder—and his commitment to being the center of attention at all times, even as he actually becomes a star.

Lukas Gage was having one of the shittiest weeks of his life. His beloved grandmother was dying. And Lukas was sitting next to his father, a man who had been mostly absent in his son’s childhood—except when talking to Lukas about tits because he loved nothing more than tits, and listening to Howard Stern on the radio. They were across the street from a building in Century City, where months prior, Lukas had to grapple with the dissolution of his marriage. This week had it all: death, divorce, and daddy issues.

In that room, Lukas did the smartest thing anyone can do in a crisis: doom scroll to see what random people on the internet were saying about him. People were calling him an attention whore—and they were absolutely right. Lukas Gage was no stranger to going viral. He loved attention. As a toddler, he set his room on fire. As a child, he hugged and flirted with women at Hooters to his father’s delight. As a teen, he stole handles of alcohol and cherry cough syrup. He had sex at a restroom in Chili’s, and fell hopelessly in love with a girl who wore an ankle monitor. He became an actor and filmed that scene in White Lotus (if you know, you know). Lukas was scared of attention and yet he craved it more than anything in the world.

I Wrote This for Attention is a riveting, exquisite memoir full of heart that chronicles Lukas’s coming of age in the haunting underbelly of San Diego and clawing his way to stardom. Lukas captures the universal anxieties of transitioning from innocence to adulthood, of feeling too much and nothing at all. Sex and death, fame and familial strife, drug abuse and Raya, I Wrote This for Attention is a remarkable achievement of healing, of vaping through therapy sessions, and of having the courage to forgive the family that hurt you and set yourself free.

A breath of fresh air

Breathtaking, the honest, and refreshingly vivid. This wonderfully written and performed memoir is free from the fake polish and ideology-driven virtue signaling infesting most modern memoirs. A rare find.

Best book of the year

Insane, Funny, Honest, Brutal, Beautiful reading and Beautiful Writing. Highly reccomend for young and old readers because this is the memoir of the year. Don't sleep on this one

Solid memoir

I have to admit I had no idea who the author was but the story was compelling nonetheless. Relatable. Sometimes funny. Easy quick read

Wow I loved this and was NOT expecting to

And when finished I came out thinking Gage, you a genius, the voice of a generation, and I may be in love with you. But how will that work long term for us? Who cares! THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLE!

Trisha’s recommendation

I picked up the book because Trisha recommended it. The memoir was incredible, Lukas’s stories, especially from his childhood, were so vivid and heartfelt that it felt like you were right there with him. There were moments that made me laugh, others that hit surprisingly hard, and many that stayed with me long after I paused the audiobook. What makes this even more special is that Lukas narrates it himself. This is one of those rare audiobooks that feels less like listening and more like having a conversation with a friend. His honesty, humor, and vulnerability shine through in every chapter.