Hey, this is entertainment critic @JayCridlin. In August 2017, I met a Dunedin singer named Zai who dreamed of becoming a pop star.

She’s come closer than most. She has Hollywood-ready talent and charisma. Yet, she’s still largely unknown.

Why? http://tbtim.es/zai 

Zai suffers from a rare condition called psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, in which her body shuts down when her mind senses stress. She also believes she has dissociative identity disorder — “multiple personalities,” it’s sometimes called.

http://tbtim.es/zai 

Her seizures and personality disorder stem, she says, from several life traumas dating to childhood, when she was a precocious performer who sang the national anthem at spring training games.

What were those traumas? Getting at them took some digging: http://tbtim.es/zai 

Zai has performed on MTV and sung for crowds of thousands. Twice, she’s made it to #AmericanIdol ’s celebrity judges.

Producers keep inviting her back. They see a singer who could be a star, if only she could get past her past: http://tbtim.es/zai 

I shadowed Zai at home, in hospitals, at gigs, in studios, at reality TV auditions. I interviewed two dozen friends, family members and experts. I combed through hundreds of pages of police and medical records to piece together her life story:

Then, about a year ago …

… Zai got pregnant: https://tbtim.es/zai 

All of a sudden, the question wasn’t whether Zai could overcome her physical and emotional struggles and become a famous pop star.

It was whether she could become a healthy mother. (And also a famous pop star.)

Read her story: https://tbtim.es/zai 

Photographers and I have followed Zai since August 2017. We were there for her breakdowns, her breakthroughs, key moments in her pregnancy: http://tbtim.es/zai 

(Photos in this thread: @marthaarhine, @tailyrirvine, Charlie Kaijo and myself.)

We spent more than two years on Zai's story, and hope you find it meaningful: http://tbtim.es/zai 

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