Beacher Jaye Sherry’s Memoirs of a Lash Artist set for release this April

By NATASHA JACKSON

Jaye Sherry, a long-time Beach resident who has lived in the community for more than 23 years, will be celebrating the release of her book Memoirs of a Lash Artist next month.

The book follows her journey managing her business and the hardships she faced to get where she is now. 

It took Sherry seven months to complete her memoir because of a number of personal life challenges she recently faced.

She has had two open-heart surgeries for the condition Quadracuspid Aortic Valve, which means she was born with four valve cusps instead of three and the extra one was slightly leaking.  After facing a near-death experience from one of the surgeries, Sherry said it triggered a spiral of post-traumatic stress and mental health struggles that kept her isolated and prevented her from living life normally.

Memoirs of a Lash Artist is a raw and heavy testament to Sherry’s life, and all the pain and resilience it took her to move forward.  After her second heart surgery and almost dying, it became a turning point for her to start a path of healing both spiritually and emotionally. 

Born and raised in the east end, Sherry moved with her three-year-old daughter to Vancouver and lived there for seven years.

Upon returning to Toronto in 2011 and settling near Kingston Road, she took a lash course and also an entrepreneur course. After completing the courses Sherry decided to set up her own eyelash business, offering the service at a number of local salons where she was able to foster meaningful relationships with her clients.

A number of those clients were teenage girls, some of whom were dealing with troubled home lives, and Sherry became a lifeline for many of them.

“That job, that business—it became a way for me to give back. I wanted to help these girls, and I did. Whether it was just listening, giving them a hug, offering some advice, or sharing my own experiences. I recognize now—with these girls—I was, for them, the person I wish I had. The person I needed in my life,” wrote Sherry in Memoirs of a Lash Artist.

The cover of the book represents the two sides of Sherry’s life. A butterfly with one dark wing and one colourful wing to show that although people in the community perceived her as a happy and healthy person, there was a darkness that she was fighting on the inside that nobody knew about.

“Black wing and a colourful wing because I was dark, and I didn’t even know I was dark. I just kept schlepping through life,” said Sherry in an interview with Beach Metro Community News “I don’t have time to cry in a corner, just get up and keep going.”

Sherry is no longer a lash artist and has changed her career path to become a writer full-time.

She said she plans to make this memoir a five-book series where each book focuses on different parts of her first memoir.

For example, the next book will solely be focused on what it was like having two open-heart surgeries and surviving a near-death experience. The book, after that, will delve more into detail about how she overcame her mental health struggles.

“The first one is the memoir, and then there’s four after it,” said Sherry. “It’s an evolving, nonfiction memoir series. It’s called a pentology. Five pieces, five parts.” 

Sherry is also launching a podcast titled Truth Serum: Real women. Raw stories. She wants the podcast to be a space for stories and unfiltered conversations with women who have survived trauma and abuse, and to have an outlet to speak freely on.

Her only support system, she said, was the community at Captain Jack’s pub in the Beach. She mentioned the names of bartenders  Zoey, Jax, Ness and Jenn, who she said were there to listen to her story when nobody else did.

“I wouldn’t have made it without them. They’re servers, but they ended up being more than that to me,” said Sherry.

For those who don’t know Sherry and will read this memoir, she said she wants them to not just see her as a survivor but as an ally to the community.

But for those who do know her, she said the message is to never read a book by its cover.

“I want people to know that if they have anything that they need to talk about, that they feel scared to talk about or nobody wants to hear, call me up,” said Sherry. “I want them to know that they’re not alone.”

The book launches on Tuesday, April 21, at The Beech Tree restaurant at, 924 Kingston Rd., at 6 p.m. Then later, starting at 8 p.m., there will be a launch celebration at Captain Jack’s, 2 Wheeler Ave. just north of Queen Street East.

To RSVP, contact Jaye at her email, msjayesherry@gmail.com or email The Beech Tree at helderca@yahoo.ca

For more on Jaye Sherry, please go to https://www.hearttoheartjaye.com/about-1