Tracey Norman facts for kids

Tracey "Africa" Norman, aka Tracey Africa, is an American fashion model, and the first African-American trans woman model to achieve prominence in the fashion industry. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Norman has modeled and been photographed for such publications as Essence, Vogue Italia and Harper's Bazaar India. Norman also had a magazine cover and life story spread in New York Magazine.

Early life

Tracey Norman was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1952. Norman identified as a woman from a young age, but didn't have any queer role models to look up to as a child, stating that "I always felt inside, since far back as I can remember, that I was female." As a child, she studied women in her life, such as her teachers and her female family members, in order to learn feminine traits. She was a shy and quiet child, and was the first person in her family to graduate high school. ..... Later, in middle school she stated that she was sexually active with two male neighbors who lived in her building. In middle school, she and her family survived the 1967 Newark Riots, and remembers seeing army tanks coming down the street where her and her family lived, which was in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Weequahic. She attended Clinton Place Junior High. Norman mostly lived with her mother growing up, but for a few years in middle school she lived with her father, which she didn't like. After middle school, she moved back in with her mother and did not have contact with her father until later in her life. When she was in junior high school, her art teacher, who she idolized, introduced her to theater, and she got to meet the actress Pearl Bailey. Her mother and father were both professional bowlers, and her parents met a bowling alley in Newark. They would take her and her sister bowling when they were children. Her parents worked a variety of jobs when Norman was growing up, and her mother eventually got a job in the County Food Stamp Department, where she worked for 25 years. In the summer, Norman would visit her family in North Carolina. In high school, she attended North Tech, and learned how to work on cars, but this was a segregated learning experience. Her interest in cars had developed earlier in childhood, when she would drive her grandfather's car. On the day of her high school graduation in 1972, she came out to mother as a woman, and her mother was very supportive, showing her "unconditional love." This was a very important moment in Norman's early life.

Career

Beginnings

In 1975, Norman was discovered after sneaking into a photo shoot with fashion photographer Irving Penn, who photographed her for Italian Vogue. Soon after, she appeared on the box of Clairol’s "Born Beautiful" hair color No. 512, Dark Auburn. She is transgender but kept that under wraps, and landed an exclusive contract with Avon, for a skin care line. In 1980, while on a photo-shoot with Essence magazine, the assistant to her hairdresser, André Douglas, found out about her birth gender and told the editor, Susan Taylor, who was also on the set. Due to the outrage and because it was not socially acceptable, her photos were not published and no company would work with her any longer.

At this time, she decided to move to Paris. There she was able to sign a 6-month contract with Balenciaga. Once that contract ended, Norman found a lack of work in Milan and moved back to New York where she signed with Grace del Marco Agency. This agency didn't give her much work and Norman had accepted that her modeling career was basically over. ..... Ever since she has been active in the drag ball community and inducted into the ballroom hall of fame in 2001.

Career revitalization

After a biographical piece was written about Norman in December 2015 by New York Magazine's digital fashion site "The Cut", Clairol reached out to Norman and in 2016 announced that Norman would become the face of their 'Nice 'n Easy Color As Real As You Are' campaign. Clairol global associate brand director Heather Carruthers stated that the company was "honored to bring back Tracey Norman as a woman who no longer has to hide her truth." The campaign focused on the "confidence that comes from embracing what makes you unique and using natural color to express yourself freely." In 2016 Norman and Geena Rocero became the first two openly transgender models to appear on the cover of an edition of Harper’s Bazaar. Norman also did a commercial for Lexus, and was in the movie "Lady Seven Sings." In 2016, Norman was interviewed by the Queer Newark Oral History Project. She has had lots of success in her career since her initial interview with New York Magazine, and has done many interviews and jobs, doing interviews with the London Times, and Marie Claire of South Africa.

Personal life

Norman says the feeling of being different goes back as far as she can remember. In a cover story for New York Magazine she said "it just seemed like I was living in the wrong body. I always felt female." For Norman her life at home as well as school was not easy. She had a father who was battling cancer and a family to whom she was afraid to come out. Although she was nervous to tell her family, she was relieved when her mother extended her arms for a big hug—she felt safe and at home. Her mother admitted that she had always known.

After coming out to her family, she wanted to start to transition but that wasn't an easy process. She has stated that she remembers buying her first dress at S. Klein department store, which was green with floral prints. She wore a size 16, later losing a lot of weight. As she went further in her transition, she developed a strong fashion sense, with a particular love for mule style shoes. A few years into her transition, Norman ran into an old classmate who had gone through the same transition. ..... A little after, she started going to trans clubs and this is where she found a doctor who did under-the-table hormone shots. ..... Realizing her feminine identity took slightly longer than it did to come out. It wasn't until a full year after her graduation that she felt like she could pass as a woman in broad daylight in public.

After transitioning, she began to attend local queer Newark bars and clubs with her friends, such as Le Joc and Murphy's. Le Joc was very popular among models, and Norman met many famous models there. However, she didn't love going out to the bars, because it was mostly all gay men, and she didn't feel welcomed, feeling that her identity as a woman was stigmatized.

In a 2021 interview with the LGBTQ&A podcast, Norman said that she does not identify as a transgender woman, but rather just a woman. It is the media that has put the term "transgender" as her identity. She just identifies as a woman, and always has, stating that "transgender means society is putting you in a category." Norman has stated that she is an animal lover, and particularly loves dogs. She also does not drink or smoke, maintaining a sober lifestyle.