In her early 20s, Michelle Gurule was broke. She’d grown up in a poor family, and she had so many dental problems she could barely chew her food. She was in college, but struggling to pay her tuition and keep the gas tank full on her beat-up old car. Her job at a grocery store wasn’t enough to make ends meet, and she was feeling desperate. In the midst of all that, she and her girlfriend broke up.
One day, she was chatting with a fellow checker at the grocery store about being a stripper, and she decided to see if dancing could help her pay the bills. Not long after she started working at a club, an older man named John wandered in and invited her out for dinner.
The conversation grew into a proposition: John offered to cover Michelle’s expenses and lavish her with gifts, in exchange for regular meetups for sex and companionship. It was a simple, seemingly uncomplicated arrangement — if she was willing to become John’s “sugar baby,” she’d never have to worry about money again. But what new worries might come with it?
Gurule, who now teaches writing at Arizona State University, chronicles her journey as a sugar baby in her new memoir, “Thank You, John,” which came out last month.
She spoke with The Show, and began by reading an excerpt from the book, about the first night she spent with John.