Stephanie Land, author who wrote a best-selling book about her life as a maid that became a Netflix hit, says greedy charities and friends begged her for money – and fans resented seeing her on the run in first class

The author of the bestselling memoir Maid has revealed that her literary success and subsequent deal with Netflix did not make her rich.

Stephanie Land, 45, said she has had to turn down requests for charitable donations and friends asking for loans after she rose to fame with the 2019 novel based on her own experience as a single mother who worked as a cleaner for wealthy families in Seattle.

Maid became a surprise bestseller just before the pandemic and was adapted into a highly popular ten-episode Netflix series starring Margaret Qualley in 2021, with a budget of $10 million.

But the Alaska native said her success came from assuming she was now rich New York Times that an unnamed charity asked for a $30,000 donation, which she politely declined.

The author revealed that when she got her first book payment, she had to give up much of it to work her way from below the poverty line to a basic level of financial stability.

The author revealed that when she got her first book payment, she had to give up much of it to work her way from below the poverty line to a basic level of financial stability. (Pictured: Land as a new mother and maid in Seattle)

Maid became a surprise bestseller just before the pandemic and was adapted into a highly popular 10-episode Netflix series starring Margaret Qualley in 2021, with a budget of $10 million.

Land said she was snowed under with $50,000 in student loans and $16,000 in credit card debt, which she immediately paid off.

Her two children also required health insurance at a cost of more than $30.00 per year after his reported earnings made them ineligible for state-subsidized health insurance. She also spent $7,000 on a used Subaru.

“I had years where I couldn’t make ends meet,” she told the Times. ‘And that also applies to mental health and our physical health.’

Land said she even had trouble coming up with a down payment for her first home.

She married Air Force veteran Tim Faust in 2019, who did not qualify for a VA home loan due to two late student loan payments.

In 2020, the couple tried to move from Missoula, Montana to Raleigh, North Carolina, seeking a $350,000 mortgage, but her book payments and promise of future payment weren’t enough to qualify.

“I couldn’t prove to them that I had a job,” Land explained to the Times. ‘The advance on the book felt like some kind of strange loan. It was scary… I still have a lot of trouble with job security.”

Land said she initially turned down loan applications from friends who thought she was now rich, but later borrowed as much as $15,000.

The writer turned down bolder requests from charities, but did pay camp fees for a week for twelve low-income families in her community.

Land wrote her memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will To Survive in 2019, when it quickly became a bestseller

In the Netflix show Maid, Land’s memories of her time as a cleaning lady are told by the main character, a single mother named Alex, who flees her abusive partner and takes refuge in a women’s shelter.

She added that her relative wealth now compared to her life before could make her seem “inauthentic” as her next book, called Class, was published this week.

This fear stems in part from the public reaction to her new social status – when Land revealed that fans gave her disapproving looks for sitting in first class on a plane – even though they were unaware that a customer was paying for the seat.

Land said that after months of wrangling with real estate agents, she secured a house – with a small down payment that required mortgage insurance.

In the Netflix show Maid, Land’s memories of her time as a cleaning lady are told by the main character, a single mother named Alex, who flees her abusive partner and takes refuge in a women’s shelter.

Struggling to make ends meet, Alex takes a job as a maid to support herself and her daughter, while fighting her former partner to keep custody of their child.

The experiences mirror very closely the events in Land’s own life; The author comes from a middle-class family in Alaska, but she became homeless in her 20s after a fight with her boyfriend.

She became pregnant unexpectedly and this led to the breakdown of her relationship when Land’s boyfriend tried to intimidate her into having an abortion, which she refused, before eventually leaving him and taking their baby with her.

In the show, Margaret Qualley plays Alex, a single mother whose luck works as a maid to make ends meet while fighting to keep custody of her daughter.

To survive, Land took a job as a cleaner for middle- and upper-class families on wealthy Camano Island, near Seattle, where she was paid $8.55 an hour.

To make the boring and “lonely” work more interesting, Land began imagining made-up stories about her clients’ lives, based on things she would see while cleaning their homes.

When her book was published, many middle- and upper-class people contacted Land and admitted they were “nervous” that so many cleaners at home could know about them.