Sherri Shepherd recently took a break from her funny-girl duties on "The View" to put many of her life experiences down on paper in Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break.
 
"We, as women, take on so much in our lives that we need to give ourselves permission to let it go," she told Black Voices. "That's where it came from. Sometimes we need to write ourselves a permission slip."

 
Making others laugh at her expense was one of the ways that Sherri dealt with many problems in her life, including divorcing her ex-husband, who cheated on her while she was pregnant.
 
"I just started doing stand-up comedy routines about it, because when it happened, I couldn't get out of bed," she said. "I went through a period when I was so depressed and had a hard time trying to figure out what to do. There was so much fear. I didn't know if I was going to make it. But I've gotten so many e-mails from women saying, 'I went through the same thing.' It's unbelievable. Even when I hear stories today, I sit at the table and think, 'What is going on with the world? Does every man cheat?'"
 
That approach has clearly worked well for the comedienne. Sherri now has a self-titled sitcom based on her comedy and by extension her personal life. She also stars in the heavily buzzed about Precious, opening November 6.
 
"I didn't realize Precious was going to be so big," Sherri said. "The sheer magnitude of the film just blows me away, and I'm glad Lee Daniels [the director] chose me for the movie. It's my first dramatic role. I just feel really blessed in my life."
 
Catch Sherri every weekday on "The View" on ABC and "Sherri" every Tuesday at 10 p.m. EST on Lifetime.

-- Whitney Teal

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