“Being a ‘child of’ meant that you were sort of riding on the coattails of your parent,” she says. “It would unlock the door and then people would sit on the other side . . . waiting for you like, ‘She’s no Diana Ross.’ At a very young age, even before I wanted to be an actor, I felt just the energy that was coming at me because I was a piece of somebody that people loved.”

Tracee Ellis Ross would forge her own path and begin to embody the woman we now know to be fierce, empowered and incredibly sure of herself which is why it comes as no surprise that her success today is speaking for her. But, it would be a slow, bumpy ride for the actress to get here.

After graduation, Ross began working in fashion before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She landed s0me small roles and then her big break came with the hit sitcom, Girlfriends, which ran for 8 years. Girlfriends was a unique show. It depicted the lives of single black females forging their paths in career, business and even in the creative industry while showcasing their love lifes, friendships and varied personalities. The Black-ish star was pretty sure this was her big break when she landed this role except that it wasn’t.

“When I was on Girlfriends, I thought I would be able to get on David Letterman or Jay Leno or some talk show, and I never—it never happened. After being the lead on a show for eight years that did incredibly well, I thought perhaps the seas might part and I would have my choice and my pick of the litter—no, that didn’t happen.”

Ross speaks on the change in times in the television industry as she mentions that we currently live in a time where people of colour are able to create stories that get picked up by television stations and for that she’s thankful. She duffs her hat to Issa Rae who is a classic example of a black woman who continues to own her craft and whose shows got picked up from Youtube to what we now know to be HBO’s Insecure.

Tracee, whose combined wit and confidence seeps through in her outfit choices and the issues to which she chooses to lend her voice, gives credit to her mother, iconic singer and performer, Diana Ross, for her strength, which she has come to emulate.

“My mother is a woman who completely possessed her own agency and embodied a sense of her own power, unapologetically”

In her same confident streak, Tracee who couldn’t land a talk show with David Letterman, now in her late 40s who now stars in what  has been deemed one of the most impactful episodes of TV’s most popular sitcoms, Black-ish, has a directorial project in the works entitled, Mother Nature, which deals with the theme of Post-Partum depression, a subject seldom raised in TV, let alone in comedy.  When she isn’t landing Ted Talks and speaking on “how a woman’s fury holds a lifetime of wisdom”,  she is also lending her voice to the ‘Time’s up’ movement.

She has also been very vocal about women breaking patriachial constructs and to define for themselves what happiness means. Her non-conformist perspective on societal ideals is always evident, as Tracee is always vocal about self love and the importance of living your best life by your own definition.

Speaking on pregnancy rumours. she told Vanity Fair:

Last year, I was [fictionally] pregnant all season. That brought on a lot of comments and questions and pontifications from people with no invitation. I literally have said to people, for real, no joke, ‘Why don’t you just get out of my womb? Like, get out of my uterus? What are you doing in there? And why are you asking those questions? And what makes you think you can ask that?’ Part of what patriarchy has created for women is this siloed-off experience, with one answer for what a good life looks like.”

Among many things, Tracee is a role model for younger women who are looking to find their voice. Her confidence is inspiring and oh so refreshing in a society that doesn’t encourage individuality very often. To see a woman of colour live rather boldly in colour is a remarkable feat; one our generation should hold dear.

She is also testament to the fact that the big moment we’ve been waiting for might not come when we expect it but nonetheless, to keep fighting the good fight of authenticity.

As I read through, I found myself giggling between sentences as I felt as though I had been teleported to the actress’ head. From her witty comebacks to her total oblivion of her fierceness, she can’t seem to understand what the fuss is all about. She’s just Issa.

I found myself clamoring for an angle in which to drive conversation about this interview until I noticed that the Stanford graduate was probably the most relatable star I had come across. If she could make it, then there’s hope for the rest of us right?

I’ve enumerated a few of these relatable characteristics below:

She is unabashedly BLACK and expresses it with no inhibitions

Now, there’s black and there’s Rae because she says exactly what the rest of us are thinking.

Rae not only embodies black girl magic, she is unapologetic about her need to see black people rise to prominence. In a viral red carpet video for the Emmys last year, when asked who she’d like to see bag an award, she announced that she was rooting for everybody black in her typical matter-of-fact tone. Social media loved it so much, it got a T-shirt.

In the interview, she states that she was shocked when she found that she didn’t have a 90% majority black audience.   She also pays tribute to black sitcoms such as Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Moesha and A Different World in this photoshoot. This comes as no shock to some of her avid fans, as she has been very opinionated about her passion for black people and their empowerment in times past. In this interview, she makes reference to her hit show being birthed from her reality as a black girl growing up in a distinctly black neighbourhood in LA-the same neighbourhood that the show was being shot.

She too gets overwhelmed

“A lot going on that I didn’t anticipate”

Issa is described as ‘sighing’ when she says this.

The interviewer describes her demeanor as ‘stressed’ as she speaks about upcoming projects as not only does she play creator and actor for Insecure, she is also producing a series for HBO entitled, Him or Her. Then she also has a script for another show she is developing, called Sweet life; and an untitled drama written by The Turner House author Angela Flournoy. She was also reading scripts for other shows and for movie parts she was being offered in between takes on the Insecure set.

On her stardom and rise so far, the actor says she is fearful. She says of her success and impending commencement of the third season:

“This could be the worst season we’ve ever had. And then what? Then people are all of a sudden like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Then the calls stop. It’s like stand-up comedy: In order to eventually succeed, you have to bomb. That’s what every comedian says—that’s when the fear goes away. And I feel like I’m still fearful because I haven’t publicly bombed yet, in terms of my career. Yeah, Insecure is successful now, but where’s my bomb coming? Where are my Will Smith bombs coming? Where, where is that happening?”

Her co-actor, Yvonne Orji, who plays ‘Molly’ in the hit series also mentions that Issa really does embody the unsure character we’ve come to love and sometimes hate, speaking of Issa’s eponymous role in Insecure.

“She really does give off an awkward energy. She really is shy. She has a hard out. She has limits. She really is this person. It’s not an act.”

She has also made mistakes in her career

You know the saying, ‘not all that glitters is gold’? Issa has also had to learn that the hard way. Mistake number 1 would be her first book entitled: ‘Awkward black girl’ which detailed explicit details of her father’s unfaithfulness in his marriage and details of her personal life. Looking back now, she admits regretting the decision to publish the book.

“Just being such a private person, going back, I wouldn’t ever write about my stuff”

Her second mistake, she recounts, was allowing ABC pick apart a film she was producing after she had been introduced by Queen of Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes. ABC bought the show, but the series fell apart in development, as the network picked Rae’s script apart with a constant barrage of notes and changes. It was a formative experience. “I was a mess,” Rae says now.

“I was just like, Yeah, I have this shot, but I don’t want to fuck it up, so I’m just gonna listen to what everybody says.”

“And I just became like fucking clay for people to mold. The Shonda process was, like, the best shit that happened to me, because it gave me confidence to feel like, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ And I feel like ABC took the confidence away.” Rae emerged from the experience determined never to compromise in that way again: “Like, I need to know what the fuck I want to say before I say yes to any opportunity. I need to have a clearer point of view and clear voice.”

This became her drive to find her voice.

When HBO called, the following year, and asked Rae if she had any ideas for a show, she finally felt like she knew the answer.

The 35-year-old shows no signs of slowing down and we love her authentic and almost-absolute abandon for fitting into a perfect paradigm that we see so many stars try to embody. It is refreshing to know that her outlook on life is so real and relatable.

Like many of us she stumbles, then she gets up and figures it out. Perhaps we’ve gotten the former right, it remains that we, like her start to do the work in achieving the latter.

Hi, my name is Moyosola and I am not perfect and neither is Issa Rae but, she’s the bomb.com. So, I can be too.

Photo Credit: GQ