WHEN Michele Lee was 15, she penned a letter to her 30-year-old self.

“I can’t remember what it said, but it was something about being a virgin and getting a good job,” she says.

“I liked the idea of writing to the future, it gave me a chance to aspire, dream and ask questions that didn’t have to be answered on the spot.”

Now 33, the former Canberran and playwright has written her first book, “Banana Girl”, a “confronting” memoir which, she says, could possibly act as a letter to her 80-year-old self.

“When you hit 30, it’s a milestone and an age where you tend to freak out, when people tend to measure you on what you’ve achieved,” she says.

“I guess I’m tapping into that age of reflecting on what you’ve done. It does feel like a precipice between adolescence and being a grown up.”

Deeply revealing and erotic, “Banana Girl” explores Michele‘s “awkward” beginnings as the “fence-sitting” middle child in a large Hmong-Australian family in Canberra, where she lived until she was 23, through to her life now; as an up-and-coming playwright and public servant living in Melbourne’s trendy Brunswick. (The term “Banana Girl” curiously refers to the “yellow, golden” skin Michele has inherited from her Laos-born parents, who moved to Australia in the 1970s.)

Described as “stumbling upon the secret diary of a complex woman”, “Banana Girl” captures Michele’s frank observations on her culture, Gen-Y yearnings and sexual adventures.

“It’s essentially laying bare myself and my relationships,” Michele says.

“When I was writing it I had to ask permission from all these people as I’m talking about friends and ex-lovers who are still very much in my life, and there are some very personal, intimate scenes.”

Is she concerned about how those people will react when they read the book?

“Not really, I suppose because I’m a little naive in the sense that I won’t be there when they’re reading so I won’t see their reaction,” she says.

“The people I’m maybe a little concerned about are my partner’s parents – but they’re not really the target audience I’m after!”

Michele started writing “Banana Girl” as part of a non-fiction assessment for her diploma of professional writing in Melbourne’s RMIT University five years ago, where she found herself “gravitating towards a memoir”.

“I’m not exactly sure why I chose to do it, but I suppose it’s a story that’s my own, and it was an interesting and cathartic exercise to weave together all parts of my life so far,” she says.

“For me, it was quite confronting compared to my usual work as a playwright, because that work is never just about me.”

Michele says her time in Canberra is a “richly nostalgic” part of the memoir.

“I was there when I was at that age where I was at school and really growing up – I always like coming-of-age stories,” she says.

“I look back at that time with a fondness, even though it was an awkward age. I think you can take the girl out of Canberra, but you can’t take Canberra out of the girl.”

She adds she’s “more than aware” that writing a memoir at the tender age of 33 may come across as self-indulgent to some.

“I do sometimes feel apologetic for being young and of a generation that can sometimes come across as self-absorbed,” she says.

“But I think it’s something that doesn’t have to be written when you’re 80 years old. It’s focusing on a time in my life, from 15 to 30 years old, where there are a lot of questions. I suppose if I rewrite a memoir when I’m 80, it would be a completely different story, there would be a lot more answers.”

Banana Girl: A Memoir, Transit Lounge Publishing, $29.95