Tracee Ellis Ross, renowned actress and daughter of music icon Diana Ross, has been in the spotlight for most of her life. With all of those eyes on her, comes expectations about what that life should look like now at age 52.
Ross has outstanding accomplishments like several seasons starring in the award-winning series “Black-ish” and the successful launch of the haircare company Pattern, of which she is the founder and co-CEO. Still, she says she is often met with criticism for not being partnered or not having children.
Grappling with other people’s expectations “limited my understanding of what was possible,” Ross said during an interview at the New York Times Well Festival this week.
“It undermined my sense of worth and self and joy until I realized it was somebody else’s idea. And I get caught in it still.”
At the same time as more and more Americans are choosing to have children later in life or not at all, there’s also the trad-wife movement where young women are centering homemaking, having children and being the best wives over pursuing a career.
The latter is a cultural shift that Ross has noticed as well.
It undermined my sense of worth and self and joy until I realized it was somebody else’s idea.
Tracee Ellis Ross
Actress and Entrepreneur
The concept of a nuclear family is “a narrative that the volume has turned back up on again culturally,” she said.
“I do not believe that my life is unworthy because I don’t have children. I do not believe that my life is unworthy because I do not have a man or partner.”
Despite having no children of her own, Ross made it a point to emphasize that she has played a motherly role in the lives of others, and shows up for her family including the one she created within her social circles.
“I do believe that I mother all over the place,” Ross said. “I do believe that I do very valued things in the world and for people that I care about and love.”
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