Debbie Gibson has found it "terrifying" to write her memoir

She told PEOPLE: "I mean, listen, it's terrifying, the idea of putting out a book. Somebody said, 'Is it harder than writing a song?' "I'm like, a song is four minutes, and a book is 90,000 words.

"It has been such a cathartic and exhausting process. The motivation behind everything I do is to hopefully inspire people."

The Foolish Beat hitmaker thinks that readers may be surprised at what she has been through in her life but hopes that they will learn that they too can "turn it around" like she did.

She said: "I always felt like the girl who was like, people would say, 'Well, if you could do it, I could do it.' I hope they read this book and they say, 'Oh my God, you went through that? I went through that. And you turned that around. Great, I want to turn that around."

Debbie - who shot to fame as a teenager with her debut album Out of the Blue and later branched out into a career in TV and film as well as Broadway theatre - has been on a US tour recently and reflected that the whole experience has been "very, very profound and meaningful" because it has informed how she has written the book.

She said: "I actually kind of set certain things around being at certain shows, and I've tried to take the reader on the journey with me with stops in the present and looking back at the same time.

"It's very, very profound and meaningful."