Relections on Lukas Gage’s Book “I Wrote This for Attention.”
When a Boy Dressed Up for Us:
I recently read I Wrote This for Attention by Lukas Gage, and it hit me in a way few memoirs do. It’s raw, messy, funny, heart-breaking, and unapologetically Lukas. People.com+3Simon & Schuster+3The Guardian+3
But this book means more to me than just reading a celebrity’s life laid bare. Because I knew Lukas—as a child who spent weekends under my roof with my daughters. Compassionate, loving, caring and full of life. I saw him perform and he would light up our weekends. I’ve carried memories of that boy in costume, full of imagination, masking pain I didn’t fully know - until I read the book.
What the Memoir Offers
Here are a few threads from the book that struck me:
Trauma, identity, and boundaries. Lukas dives into childhood wounds, family ruptures, addiction, and being thrust into treatment programs as a teen. It is an honest and raw account of what many of us experience and keep hidden. Them+4People.com+4The Guardian+4
The hunger for attention. Lukas names it as a driving force: wanting to be seen, needing validation, yet also fearing exposure. That tension pulses throughout the book. I believe all of us want attention and crave to be seen and witnessed. People.com+2Esquire+2
Mental health and diagnoses. Lukas discusses his diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and how treatment, medication, and therapy all wove into his messy journey. I also see him as a deeply sensitive, deeply feeling and deeply intuitive soul - who wanted to fit in to be accepted - and I see myself through this lens as well - maybe we all do? People.com+2The Guardian+2
Humor as survival. Even in the most harrowing moments, Lukas leans into absurdity, into laughter, into performance as armor and truth. He is a gift to this world and I just love him. The Guardian+2Esquire+2
His narrative doesn’t promise “healed” or “fixed.” It promises honesty and the courage to show what most people hide. I love his deep dive and his ability to be an example for others. Courageous!!
My Weekend Lukas
I’m writing this with a weird sort of gratitude and ache. Watching a child I know become someone whose truth is now public is both beautiful and fragile.
Here’s what I remember about Lukas:
He’d arrive on weekend mornings with a costume or prop tucked in his backpack. He’d quietly slip into character (sometimes dramatic, sometimes goofy) and perform little skits while we ate breakfast. He would dress up in heels and create outfits that were so fun!!
He has this light—bright eyes, ideas spilling, a kind of electric energy you can’t teach. He made our lives better.
At times, he would laugh hard and make us laugh harder! He would shift his persona like he was wearing many masks. He was so good at masking, I had no idea of the pain he was experiencing. I remember sensing that Lukas was carrying something heavier beneath the surface. One day, I took a chance and told his dad, “I think Lukas may be gay. ” He brushed it off immediately — saying, “No way, his email is ladiesmanlukas.” The conversation ended there. My invitation to see Lukas more deeply was quietly turned away.
So reading this book is like peeling the layers I glimpsed long ago and seeing what was underneath—with his consent, with his voice.
Why This Memoir Matters
For those who masked. If you ever used humor, creativity, attention to hide something you couldn’t name, this will land in your bones and I hope it inspires others to be honest in the moment!
For mental health conversations. Lukas doesn’t glamorize pain or fix it neatly. He shows how real the struggle is.
For witnesses. People around someone hurting often feel powerless. This book helps you see how being seen (or unseen) matters.
BPD Is Not a Death Sentence — Lukas Gage Reminds Us Why
The diagnosis borderline personality disorder often lands like a verdict.
In clinical settings, it’s too often whispered with pity, written off as “too hard,” “too much,” or “untreatable.” I’ve seen people give up on themselves after hearing those three letters — as if the label means “broken beyond repair.”
But Lukas Gage’s Book dismantles that myth.
In his own wild, unfiltered way, he shows that a diagnosis doesn’t end your story — it can be the map to reclaim it. Lukas doesn’t hide the chaos that BPD can bring: the intensity, the fear of abandonment, the impulse to run or explode. But he also doesn’t let it define him. His pages are living proof that with self-awareness, courage, humor, and care, there is life beyond the label.
He models something I’ve long believed:
BPD isn’t a death sentence. It’s a call to radical honesty and deep healing.
Every person with that diagnosis holds the same light Lukas carried as a child — bright, creative, bursting with possibility. His story reminds us that what’s been pathologized is often the same sensitivity that makes someone capable of immense empathy and art.
The world doesn’t need fewer Lukas Gages. It needs more space for them to be seen and understood.
Something I Want You to Hold
That child I knew—bright, imaginative, entertaining—concealed corridors of pain. This memoir is him opening the doors. It’s brave. It’s messy. It’s human. Thank you Lukas for your honesty and transparency!
I’m in awe of the person he’s becoming. And in reading his book, I felt seen, too—seen in the remembering, in the witness. I have a feeling many will relate!