frame by frame; Growing up, Dani Shapiro always felt caught in her mother's viewfinder-until she found the strength to break free.

Byline: Dani Shapiro

When I was six months old, my mother brought me from our suburban New Jersey home to a television studio in Manhattan. I was placed in a high chair, and an actress playing my mother spooned baby food into my mouth. My mother watched nervously from the wings, where two backup babies were waiting in case I spat out the food-but I didn't. I gurgled and smiled and ate the strained peaches. I was a natural, apparently. When it was over, I had become the Beech-Nut baby.

The week the commercial was due to air, my grandfather-my father's father-died suddenly in his home on Central Park West. The following day, at his funeral, my grandmother ...