00:00You know where I'm dying to go?
00:01Senegal.
00:02Have you seen the Senegalese men?
00:06Would you like to know what Tracy's type is?
00:09Just saying.
00:10Hi, I'm Tracy Ellis Ross,
00:12and these are some of my meaningful places.
00:15A meaningful place from my childhood
00:18would be 781 Fifth Avenue.
00:22First of all, let me see if I can find New York on the map.
00:25I mean, we don't do a lot of geography in school.
00:30Here in the States.
00:31But I'm gonna do my best, okay?
00:34I know it's up, up, up, up.
00:36Oh, New York.
00:37They don't have a Fifth Avenue on here.
00:40Boom.
00:41I wasn't born in New York,
00:43but I moved to New York in 1979
00:48because my mother was doing a little old movie called The Wiz.
00:51We moved into the 31st floor of the Sherry Netherlands Hotel.
00:57I don't see it on the map, but in my world,
01:01it is a very clear part of my journey and on the map of Tracy.
01:07First of all, I don't know if you guys know the book Eloise.
01:10She lives at the plaza, which was across from the Sherry Netherlands, where I lived.
01:15And there's a pigeon that comes to her window, and it flies from the Sherry Netherlands.
01:21I always thought it was flying from my window.
01:26I don't know if that's true.
01:27It's obviously not.
01:28But that corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th,
01:31first of all, it's a beautiful place to be in the Christmas time,
01:35like from November to December.
01:36It's up from Rockefeller.
01:38Tiffany's is down there.
01:39It's at the bottom of Central Park.
01:41I was like six or seven until 12.
01:44I lived there on that corner.
01:46I don't live in New York anymore.
01:48And if I lived in New York now,
01:49I don't know that I could afford the 31st floor of the Sherry Netherlands Hotel.
01:55But yeah, for me, it is New York.
02:00The NR is right on the corner, corner of 60th.
02:03Barney's used to be right there.
02:05Fiorucci was up the street.
02:07Charavari was on 57th.
02:09I mean my early fashion haunts.
02:15NYC.
02:16My first sort of Tracy traveling is Tracy.
02:20I moved to Paris when I was 13, I think.
02:25And I lived on the Champs Elysees.
02:27No, I did not.
02:28I lived on Avenue Montaigne.
02:30Guess where?
02:31In the Plaza Antoinette Hotel.
02:34So let's find Paris on this map.
02:37Do you guys remember Mr. Magoo?
02:39This is kind of like how my glasses are.
02:42It feels like this makes you want to talk like this.
02:44I need to read the newspaper.
02:46Okay, so just a little tidbit of information about my time in Paris.
02:50I did not speak the French.
02:52The French was not on my tongue.
02:54Je parle français maintenant, but then I did not.
02:56Because I didn't speak French, it was a scary, scary place.
03:02As a 13 year old who doesn't speak the language.
03:05I had a moment where I got off a bus, not in a place that I recognized.
03:12This was before cell phones.
03:14So it was pay phone, and the pay phones in Paris worked very differently than the pay phones on the
03:20street in New York.
03:21And the coins, I couldn't figure out which one would go in.
03:23And I couldn't call home, and I didn't know what to do, and finally a lady helped me.
03:28And I said, I don't know where.
03:30I'm lost, and I can't get home.
03:31She said, where do you live?
03:32And I said, the plaza Antoinette.
03:35But I did make it home.
03:36And I'm still alive.
03:38From Paris, I went to boarding school in Switzerland.
03:41Let's find that on the map.
03:43I know we had seen it before.
03:46Let's put a little gold.
03:49I mean, it's so teeny.
03:51I'm so intrigued.
03:53By the way, people should get maps.
03:55Do you remember when we had those globes you would spin them around and they had all that topography?
03:59The topography is also how I describe my face.
04:01Like, don't smooth me out and make me look like a baby dolphin.
04:05I want to look like a lady with topography.
04:07Okay, so many things happen in Switzerland that are a part of who I am today
04:11that were so important.
04:12And I think Switzerland had a huge and still has a huge impact on my life.
04:16I really started to understand humans are humans, no matter where you are,
04:21and really enjoy the texture of life that culture offers.
04:27And the fashion was amazing.
04:30I know you think I would have said that from Paris.
04:32And yes, it is amazing there.
04:34But for me, I discovered dressing oneself
04:39and that sense of style that is wearing your insides on the outsides
04:44in Switzerland at boarding school.
04:46There were twins, Jada and Rosie Ardizzone.
04:50When I tell you their fashion was unbelievable, I was dying.
04:56They would wear their Superga sneakers and tracksuits, not sweatsuits, tracksuits and a fur.
05:03Oh my God.
05:04And then a headband.
05:05They would take the headband, push the hair back, and then push the hair back forward.
05:09And then make a little ponytail on the back.
05:11So it was like a poof in the front.
05:12When I tell you to this day, I wear matching sweatsuits.
05:17When someone asks, what are you traveling?
05:19Fancy sweats.
05:21New York.
05:22Lived there, talked about it.
05:23Paris.
05:24Lived there, talked about it.
05:26Switzerland.
05:27Lived there, talked about it.
05:29Went home to New York, but lived in Connecticut.
05:32Oh my God, are you confused?
05:33I'm confused, but that's okay.
05:35It's still my life.
05:36And from there, let me find Los Angeles.
05:38It's over here.
05:39I moved out to Hollywood to become a star.
05:42I went to the Hollywood sign and I said,
05:45somebody please choose me, choose me, choose me.
05:48I auditioned for many, many, many, many, many, many, many things which I did not get.
05:52But then I went in and I auditioned for a show called Girlfriends.
05:55We shot the first six seasons on the Paramount lot.
06:02The one you see in movies, it was back in the early days.
06:05It was still there.
06:06We would go through the gates every morning.
06:07I don't know why I'm talking like this.
06:09This was after Lyricist Lounge, but Girlfriends was my big break.
06:12I feel like, you know what?
06:13Oh, I have been to China.
06:15Have I been anywhere down here?
06:16What's this?
06:17I've been to Australia.
06:18Oh my God.
06:18Season two.
06:19Solo traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross.
06:21Oh my God.
06:22You didn't make it go anywhere.
06:24I wanted to go.
06:26I'm a pool girl.
06:28Where's Kenya?
06:29Got it.
06:30I've been to Germany.
06:32I've been to the UK and Ireland.
06:35I've been to Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Canada.
06:40I've been to Alaska.
06:41I went on a fishing trip in Alaska with my stepdad when I was 16.
06:44And I caught a 45 pound king salmon and I cleaned it myself and I cooked it.
06:49It was delicious.
06:50There were bears.
06:50They ate our tents.
06:51Not cool.
06:52Not cool at all.
06:54Okay.
06:54So we're in Chicago, guys.
06:56Outside of Chicago, in Illinois, is a place called Bolingbrook.
07:01And you wonder, why?
07:02Why was she there?
07:03I'll tell you why.
07:04Ulta headquarters.
07:05And they were my first retail partners for pattern beauty.
07:10I took my first trip when we first launched and I walked through the Ulta headquarters and I did a
07:16Q&A there.
07:17They helped me find my inner CEO.
07:19I think we're almost done, but I just want to make sure I've put dots everywhere.
07:23Oh, there's Dubai.
07:27Oh my God.
07:28I've been a lot of places.
07:29This is actually where I've never been to Japan.
07:32I've never been to Korea.
07:37Japan gets a special.
07:39I've always wanted to go to Japan.
07:40I want to go everywhere if you want to know the truth.
07:43I'd like, I really would like to go to Greenland.
07:45I haven't spent enough time here.
07:47This needs to happen.
07:50Hi Senegal.
07:52Did you hear them all say hi back?
07:56What we've determined is I need to spend more time in South America, more time in Africa,
08:00that I am on my way to Japan and Senegal.
08:03They've called me.
08:04They asked me to come.
08:05I take home with me wherever I go, both inside of me and also in my luggage.
08:11I believe in the philosophy of BIA.
08:14Bring it all.
08:15Traveling is incredible.
08:17And even more incredible is solo traveling because I feel like if you can do it safely and figure out
08:22how
08:22to do that, you really get to absorb and let yourself be in that beautiful sense of discomfort
08:28that allows for absolute magic.
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