Social media personality Nix Adams is sharing the story behind her rise to fame in a new memoir, Nothing to Lose, which explores grief, addiction, motherhood and her journey to recovery.
The book reflects on some of the most difficult periods of her life, including the loss of her youngest child, her struggles with addiction and the challenges of rebuilding her life.
“I remember when I first came on social media and started sharing about addiction and owning that, hey, I was a really bad mum. I took accountability for the fact that for those years I did choose drugs over my children and that’s shameful and I got criticised, I got judged,” she said.
Despite that, she adds, Adams pushed on and shared details of her life to inspire others offering hope that if you ‘mess up’, we can always turn things around.
“I wrote this book to inspire people, to motivate people to inspire people, that no matter what we’ve been through in our life whether it be intergenerational trauma, whether it be the loss of children, addiction we can always claw our way back from rock bottom.”
Adams first gained attention across social media in 2018, sharing aspects of her life following the death of her youngest child, Alaska, who died from a virus in 2013.
The loss had a profound impact on Adams, with her grief contributing to addiction and periods in prison.
Her experiences became part of the story she would later share publicly as she worked towards recovery and rebuilding relationships with her family.
Through her videos, Adams has developed a reputation for her candid and often humorous approach to storytelling, sharing personal experiences that have resonated with audiences across Aotearoa and internationally.
She hopes the book will benefit many whānau who maybe in a similar situation dealing with addiction issues and the complexities of whānau.
“I feel as though it’s going to be healing for a lot of whānau out there who don’t understand how they were raised and what that looked like.”
“I was in my 30s and I had that face-to-face with mum, and she shared with me her upbringing that all my questions, my resentments, all of that just melted away because, how could I be mad and hold this much [anger] when she really did do the best that she could with the tools that she had?”
Her openness about her life has also helped build a successful career as a television personality and social media creator.
Adams won the 2021 NZ Television Personality of the Year award for her role co-hosting Terei Tonight alongside Pio Terei on Whakaata Māori.
More recently, Adams won Celebrity Treasure Island 2026, becoming the first Māori woman to win the competition and securing $100,000 for the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation.
Nothing to Lose is available from bookshops nationwide.
