Jenna Ushkowitz to Write Book! (Exclusive)

"Choosing Glee" will explore the actress' motivational approach to life and share stories from her time on the Fox musical.

Glee's Jenna Ushkowitz is opening a new chapter in her life.

The actress, who has played Tina Cohen-Chang for three seasons of the Fox musical, will pen her first book, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

St. Martin's Press has optioned Ushkowitz's Choosing Glee, which will explore the 26-year-old actress' rise to fame and motivational approach to life.

"People ask me, 'How did you get here?' Well, I learned how to fight for what I want," says Ushkowitz. "I learned to focus and work hard and not give up. I learned that every obstacle is really an opportunity."

Ushkowitz, who was adopted as a baby and raised by a Long Island family, has been performing since she was 3, moving to Broadway for a role in The King and I in 1996 and serving as an understudy in Spring Awakening.

"My goal is for you to walk away from this book looking at the world differently than when you started. It's about how to have, do and be anything you want," she said of the book, in which she'll also share anecdotes about her time on Broadway and life on the Glee set. Choosing Glee will be published in spring 2013.

Ushkowitz's book becomes the latest in Glee's literary endeavors. Little, Brown Books is in the process of publishing five Glee-related young-adult books with a rumored book and accompanying tour set about Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester.

Castmembers also are penning books. Lynch released her autobiography, Happy Accidents, in September, and Chris Colfer's first book, the young-adult-targeted The Land of Stories, is due July 17. He signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown Books in June 2011.

Ushkowitz is repped by the Abrams Artists Agency, Emery Entertainment and Stone Meyer.

source: Hollywood Reporter