As an actress, author and a single mom, Janine Turner has played many different roles in both her professional and personal lives. Gayle talks to Janine about her book Holding Her Head High and how single mothers around the globe have inspired her.

Janine's boyfriend left her while she was 8 months pregnant with her first daughter, so she knows firsthand about raising a child by herself. "I don't think women really sit back and say, 'When I grow up, I want to be a single mom,'" Janine says. "But I have a lot of compassion for all of us because sometimes you are dealt a curveball."

In Holding Her Head High, Janine focuses on portraying single mothers throughout history in a positive light. "I wanted to show that they all had faith, the way they all responded to their challenging times with dignity, that they were about helping others, that their life wasn't about glam and glitz," she says. "I was amazed at the women who went through it before us—devastating circumstances. They hit these valleys, and they all persevered."

Janine says she plans to write a second book, which will focus on the lives of modern-day single mothers. "I don't want single mothers to be labeled in a negative frame," she says. "There are a lot of she-roes out there."