Nurse Sugar, Who Helped 20,000+ Nursing Students, Unveils the Story She Never Posted at Los Angeles Book Launch

Olubukola “Sugar” Akinpelu at “An Evening With Sugar,” the Los Angeles launch of her memoir My Life as Sugar, at Robby’s West Hollywood, October 20, 2026. (Photo: Mark Gunter/Getty Images)

Guests welcome Sugar at “An Evening With Sugar” in West Hollywood, celebrating the launch of My Life as Sugar. (Photo: Shaks Photography)

Sugar on stage at “An Evening With Sugar,” the Los Angeles launch of her memoir My Life as Sugar, at Robby’s West Hollywood. (Photo: Shaks Photography)

Navy veteran and nurse Olubukola “Sugar” Akinpelu, whose study guide helped 20,000+ students, launches her memoir “My Life as Sugar” in Los Angeles.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, UNITED STATES, November 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Nigerian-born U.S. Navy veteran, registered nurse and entrepreneur Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu, known to millions online as Nurse Sugar, celebrated the publication of her debut memoir, My Life as Sugar: A Memoir of Everything I Built and Everything I Hid, with "An Evening With Sugar," an invitation-only book launch at Robby's West Hollywood on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the book's official publication date.

Guests arrived on a carpet buzzing with interviews, with arrivals captured by Getty Images and coverage from Ezway Media, The Scoop, Dizzy Diddy Network, and DH Productions. Hosted by actress Nia Miranda Duckett (Nwosuocha) (G.R.I.T.S., ALLBLK), the evening's highlight was a moderated conversation led by Olawunmi Oyedeji, in which Sugar spoke about her memoir, her journey and the story behind the woman the world sees today, followed by an audience Q&A. DJ Obieezy closed the night as guests celebrated on the dance floor.

“Standing in that room, surrounded by people who came to celebrate a story I spent years hiding, I felt free. For so long the world saw only what I built. Now they get to see all of me, and I hope every woman holding something heavy knows she can choose herself too.”
- Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu, West Hollywood, October 20, 2026

The launch was produced by Noah Omobolanle O. of Top Dreams Universal Group, with creative direction by Joy Ogu.

The Book She Wrote in Secret:

For years, millions watched Sugar build her life online, posting every day. What they did not know was that she was writing a book in secret.

The internet knows her as Nurse Sugar: self-made, glamorous, and unstoppable. Nobody knows what she survived to become her. From one room in Ibadan to the U.S. Navy, a nursing empire, and a marriage that nearly erased her, this is the story of a woman who finally chose herself.

Told in urgent, unflinching present tense, My Life as Sugar follows Akinpelu from childhood in Ibadan through the Navy, nursing, and entrepreneurship across Lagos, Houston, Dallas, Dubai, Istanbul, and Mykonos. Across 29 chapters, every scene anchored to a date, it is the story of a woman who built a life the world could see and what it cost to carry what it could not.

She showed the world everything she built. This is everything she hid.

The memoir speaks to every woman holding something heavy inside a life that looks perfect from the outside and to the immigrants, nurses, veterans and first-generation dreamers who see their own journeys in hers.
"This book is the part I could not post."- Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu

From One Room in Ibadan to 20,000 Copies:

Born in a one-room home in Ibadan, Nigeria, and raised on faith and her parents' sacrifice, Akinpelu arrived in the United States in January 2014 with no winter coat and a plan. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy, became a citizen at her boot camp graduation, and used her service to put herself through nursing school, passing the NCLEX in July 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She went on to work as a nurse on COVID, neurology, and cardiac units in hospitals across Texas.

In nursing school, she failed one exam, taught herself how to study, and wrote her own notes to get through. Working night shifts during the pandemic, she began sharing those notes with students online. The demand turned them into The Ultimate Nursing School Study Guide, which sold out its first print run in under 30 minutes at a midnight launch she ran from a hospital break room. The guide has since sold more than 20,000 copies, anchoring a nursing-education brand that has served more than 20,000 students and a devoted online community. In 2023, she left the bedside to run her company full-time.

Her story has already drawn wide attention, including the Dear Ife Series interview, viewed more than 1.3 million times, and a Los Angeles Tribune feature, "The life she never posted: Nurse Sugar steps out from behind the brand" (October 26, 2026).

“If one person reads this and realizes they don’t have to keep pretending, then every page was worth it.”- Olubukola “Sugar” Akinpelu, to the Los Angeles Tribune

Availability:

My Life as Sugar: A Memoir of Everything I Built and Everything I Hid (Sugar Ventures LLC, 2026) is available now in two editions:
Numbered Limited Collector's Edition ($99, free U.S. shipping): cloth hardcover with dust jacket in a magnetic keepsake box, with the CONFIDENTIAL file and numbered card, ribbon bookmark, Readers Club card, and a personal note from Sugar. First edition, never reprinted. Available only at mylifeassugar.com/memoir.
Hardcover ($39.99): the same cloth hardcover, 676 pages.
Also available from October 29, 2026: the hardcover on Amazon; the paperback ($34.99, 682 pages) on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble; and the Kindle ebook ($12.99)

Interviews:

Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu is available for interviews. For media requests, please contact the African Pictures International team at info@africanpicturesinternational.com or (404) 647-4952 or Sugar Ventures LLC at sugar@mylifeassugar.com or creative director Joy Ogu (JOVINO HQ) at jovinocreativeco@gmail.com

About Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu

Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu, known to millions online as Nurse Sugar, is a Nigerian-born entrepreneur, U.S. Navy veteran, and registered nurse. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria she immigrated to the United States, served in the Navy, and built a nursing career. After a single failed exam, she created a study guide that has sold more than 20,000 copies and grew it into a nursing-education business and a devoted online community. For years the world watched her build. My Life as Sugar is the story beneath it and her debut memoir.

About Sugar Ventures LLC
Sugar Ventures LLC, based in Plano, Texas, is the company of Olubukola "Sugar" Akinpelu and the publisher of My Life as Sugar.

About African Pictures International

African Pictures International (API) is a creative economy company building the infrastructure for African and diaspora storytelling across film, media, publishing, and culture. Through its strategic communications and consultancy arm, API serves as communications partner for My Life as Sugar.

Sahndra Fon Dufe
African Pictures International
+1 404-647-4952
info@africanpicturesinternational.com
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