Spotlight on Barbara Walters

Barbara says her daughter turned her life around thanks to her time at the alternative school. Today, Jackie lives in Maine and runs New Horizons, a therapeutic wilderness program for adolescent girls in crisis. Barbara says she and her daughter are now very close.

"She took the lesson of her life and turned it into a triumph for other girls," Oprah says.

Before Barbara sat down to write about her experiences as a mother, she says she got Jackie's blessing. "I said to her, 'Do you want me to talk about this? Do you want me to talk about the drugs?'" Barbara says. "She said, 'Maybe it will help other parents understand. Maybe it will help them feel less guilty.' Maybe some of the things that she and I learned together—because I learned along with her when she went away—maybe it will help."

So far, Barbara says it's the only chapter Jackie's read.