Despite growing up in Hollywood as the daughter of a legend, award-winning actress and entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross has remained relatable over the years. Now that she’s wrapped up the final season of Black-ish and is getting ready to turn the big 50, we look at what’s next.
Tracee Ellis Ross (49) is the second daughter of the legendary singer Diana Ross. Tracee has been praised as an actress, producer, social activist and fashion icon. And she’s just getting started. ‘The strange part is I turn 50 this year, and I feel like I’m at the beginning,’ she said in an interview with Megan Thee Stallion for The Cut.
Tracee has proved time and again that she is a force to be reckoned with. Now sharpening her business acumen, she’s added to her list of achievements by founding the haircare brand Pattern, which caters to hair with curly, coily and tight textures.
‘My haircare line was 10 years in the making,’ she said to Megan. ‘It started because of my own personal journey with my hair, trying to make sense of how my hair grew out of my head, products that didn’t exist, a world that wasn’t mirroring back the truth of my own beauty.’ She recently joined Ulta Beauty (a chain of beauty stores that also exclusively stocks Pattern) as a diversity and inclusion advisor.
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PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE
Being an actress, not everyone was confident in Ross’s business acumen. During the early planning stages, she received numerous rejections. In an interview with Fast Company, she recalls telling a staff member that she wanted to launch a haircare line. However, they suggested that she establish a wig line instead. Another mentioned that no one would purchase haircare products from her because she was an actress.
She is now the face of hair acceptance. Two years ago, she wrote on Instagram: ‘I’ve always said that my journey to self-acceptance can be told through the story of my hair. Taking the time to understand, accept and love my hair shows how I feel about myself. I’ve learned to love and appreciate my hair no matter what season. Because loving your hair is loving yourself.’
Despite many roadblocks and her inexperience, she remained steadfast in her resolve, and Tracee’s insightful advice for those encountering criticism is to be patient and persevere.
‘Accumulate the information. Accept your disappointments. They shall arrive. They are essential. They are part of the chance to clarify your intentions,’ she says. Even better is that Tracee has put her detractors to shame since Pattern’s launch. The website generated nearly eight times the anticipated sales on its first day, and its Instagram following grew significantly within a week.
SILENCING THE CYNICS
Diana Ross was famously hands off with her children’s careers. ‘I have three girls [...] I’m not involved in their careers because I’ve learned that it’s important for them to stand on their own two feet,’ the famous Motown singer said. ‘They’ll feel better and prouder of themselves if they do.’
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As it turns out, Tracee and her siblings have enjoyed successful careers, and have much to be proud of. Tracee admits it wasn’t an easy journey; she had to find her own way in Hollywood and do so in such a way that she wouldn’t be overshadowed by her famous mother.
Tracee has a slew of accolades under her belt, including eight seasons of the critically acclaimed show Girlfriends, in which she portrayed lawyer Joan Clayton, and eight seasons playing Dr Rainbow Johnson in the award-winning series Black-ish. She’s won a Golden Globe Award and is an acclaimed TED Talk speaker.
Most recently, Tracee played Grace Davis, a superstar experiencing a mid-career crisis in the movie, High Note, her biggest movie to date and one in which she made her singing debut.
FAILING FORWARD
She still remembers how scared she was when she first started going to auditions and how often she was turned down – from an agent dropping her and a well-known manager not wanting to work with her. ‘I was so unhappy in my own skin,’ she recalls. ‘I was so busy trying to be what I thought everyone else wanted me to be that I didn’t have room for myself.’
But, even though it took Tracee a long time to find and accept herself, she loves who she is now. In an interview with Oprah, she said, ‘My worth just goes down when I’m reminded that I’ve “failed” on the marriage and carriage counts.’ She admits she spent years yearning to be chosen until she realised that she was the only one who could make herself happy.
Like her mother, Tracee has spoken out against racism and outdated ideas that women aren’t good enough unless they are married and have children. She doesn’t have kids and is happily and proudly single.
‘I feel the sexiest I’ve ever felt,’ she told Glamour. However, because of her unconventional upbringing, people assume she longed for a more traditional life. ‘Well, how could you not? Our society spoonfeeds it to us. I used to put myself to sleep dreaming of my wedding,’ she says. However, she remarks that she would like to be married and have children one day, ‘but what am I going to do, just sit around waiting? I’ve got so many things to do.’
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TRACEE ELLIS ROSS: THE NEXT CHAPTER
Reviewed by Michelle Pienaar
on
July 21, 2022
Rating:
Reviewed by Michelle Pienaar
on
July 21, 2022
Rating:
