Christine Quinn Reveals She Went to Jail at 17 for Marijuana Possession, Talks New Book

Thom Kerr Christine Quinn

For her next project, Christine Quinn is looking back on her past.

On Thursday, the Selling Sunset star, 32, unveiled the cover of her first book, How to Be a Boss Bitch. Ahead of the reveal, Quinn opened up to PEOPLE exclusively about what to expect in her literary debut, coming out May 17, 2022.

In addition to sharing lessons she's learned becoming a luxury real estate agent, Quinn will delve into moments from her past that shaped her life — including an arrest for drugs when she was 17.

The reality star had a hard time fitting in when she grew up in Texas, and her parents sent her to an alternative school, where she says she fell in with the wrong crowd.

Thom Kerr Christine Quinn

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"One day someone gave me a little birthday surprise, and it happened to be marijuana. Another kid saw them give it to me, and I got called into the principal's office and the principal had a choice. She said, 'I'm going to think about whether I'm going to suspend you or call the police right now.' And she chose to call the police," Quinn recalls. "So they booked me and everything, handcuffs and all. I walked out of that school and I was in jail because you're a legal adult at 17."

The Netflix star says the experience was a turning point in her life.

"I went to jail on my birthday, and my parents taught me a lesson. They didn't bail me out for four days. I learned so much in those four days, and I took time to reflect on my actions and change my life because I realized if I didn't change something I was going down a hole," Quinn says. "It made me really think, like, okay — one screw up, one little mess really can turn my life around. It certainly put me in check at a really young age; I had to grow up really, really fast."

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AFF-USA/Shutterstock Christine Quinn

While marijuana is legal in California today, the L.A.-based star says she still doesn't indulge.

"To this day, I do not do drugs because of that," she says. "I'm terrified. Not only because of that, but just because it makes me sleepy and I think the police are coming all the time."

Reflecting while writing the book also gave Quinn some new perspective.

"I don't really like to talk about the past. I'm always like, let's move forward, let's move with the future. But I learned by opening up and telling the stories that I'm not only healing myself, which was so important, but I'm helping other people along the way," she says. "So I rediscovered myself in a weird way, and it was interesting to see how my past and every move that I made was so important leading up here today."

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Rich Fury/Getty Christine Quinn

Quinn got the idea to write How to Be a Boss Bitch after season 1 of Selling Sunset came out in 2019.

"When the show launched, I got a flood of messages, most of which were like, 'I hate you. You're a bitch.' And then questions would come in and they were about relationships, or confidence, or talking to your boss. 'What are the right ways to do this? How do you deal with negative friends?'" Quinn says. "Because I'm a Libra, I'm very balanced, so I've always been the one in my friend group who's great at advice. I worked really hard to manifest in my life and get where I am at today."

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And now she hopes to offer accessible self-help with the book.

"I have in each chapter all these really great tips, tricks, how-to's, quizzes, exercises so people can hold themselves accountable. It's very interactive," she adds. "You can find out what kind of boss bitch you are. Just like the five languages of love, there's five languages of bitches and boss bitches. So it was something that was really exciting for me to categorize and then kind of divulge into all these different instances in my life where I kind of did outside of the box thinking to manifest really great things."

How to Be a Boss Bitch comes out May 17, 2022.