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WASHINGTON - Only a few years ago Jenna Bush was a party animal, prone to giving her parents nightmares as she crawled the bars of Georgetown or stuck her tongue out at photographers while riding the presidential limousine.
Suddenly all is transformed. Not only is Bush getting married but she has embarked on a 25-city tour to promote her first book, Ana's Story.
The former White House bad girl now wears a diamond and sapphire engagement ring as she does the rounds of the big city newspapers and TV studios, plugging her tale of an HIV-positive single mother from Panama whom she met while on work experience there with Unicef.
Bush now wants to "start a dialogue" with young Americans about global issues of Aids, poverty, abuse and lack of education.
Her name alone guarantees wall-to-wall publicity and lots of questions on issues she would rather not discuss, such as being summoned by the police for underage drinking with her twin sister Barbara.
Bush volunteered to go to Panama with a friend, Mia Baxter, who is a photographer for Glamour magazine, and began documenting the lives of young people who did not have access to basic education, social services or health care. When she met a 17-year-old single mother she calls Ana, she decided to come up with a book proposal, and a high-powered Washington lawyer helped her negotiate a contract with HarperCollins.
Bush's share of the profits will go to Unicef and some funds have been set aside for an educational fund for Ana.
- Independent
