Published last year, her memoir, The Girls dealt with what happened to her and her parents after a family tragedy.

Heading back from a weekend at the snow, her sisters Carlie and Lisa died when the car their father Maurice was driving flipped - he was pulled out of the burning car and survived.

The Girls is Higgins' story of what happened next - and for her it included drugs, sex and a stint in a psychiatric ward. She also wrote openly about the changing relationship with Maurice and her mother Rhonda.

It's a starkly revealing book, and Higgins felt "terrified" as the publication date approached.

READ MORE: Family's grief over death of two sisters

"It felt it like a physical thing for the three months leading up to the release," Higgins remembered.

"I remember the month before the book came out, I went to Thailand and lived in a Muay Thai gym and just trained six days a week. There was this physical thing sitting in my body - it was the terror of releasing this book into the world and revealing all of this personal stuff about myself - and also my parents."

But the reaction to the book was "lovely", so much so that she know has to remind herself of how frightened she once felt.

The book went on to be nominated in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, winning the People's Choice award.

It was also warmly received by her parents - Rhonda still posts photos on Facebook when she finds the book on the shelves in a bookstore.

Higgins said writing The Girls helped her to heal from the trauma of losing her sisters, and it has helped her parents as well.

"It think it's helped dad start talking about things he would have otherwise struggled to talk about," Higgins said.

"With mum the word 'shame' is something that hangs heavy over her. It was a thing that she was most terrified about the book coming out. She wasn't so much worried about the personal stuff about her being revealed but worried about the stigma I might face because some of the topics I write about are quite socially stigmatising.

"I think she's been really buoyed by people's response to the book, by how many people have really supported her and expressed how much they love the book.

"I think it's been good for her to see that things we might think of as shameful aren't necessarily shameful - they can be personal self-judgements rather than social judgements."

Chloe Higgins will talk about her memoir The Girls at Collins Booksellers, Thirroul, at 4.30pm on Saturday.