"I sat down in the school cafeteria with the day's offering of mystery meat and Jell-O on my lunch tray. I tried to ignore the table of jocks snickering behind me when one of them approached with a nudie magazine in hand. SMACK! ... it landed on my table. On the cover was a young girl in a pleated skirt with her hands over her breasts. I choked on my food. Oh my God, it was me!" How does a teenager go from high school sophomore to the most recognized porn star in the world overnight? And why?Twelve-year-old Nora Kuzma traveled with her mother and three sisters to southern California in search of a stable life. But years of sexual abuse and parental neglect drove her onto the streets of Hollywood and straight to the door of a nude modeling agency. Struggling to survive, she assumed the name Traci Lords and became a Penthouse centerfold. By age fifteen she was a world-famous porn queen drowning in a sea of sex, drugs, and lies until the FBI raided her home just days after her eighteenth birthday. Traci Lords: Underneath It All is the powerful, uncensored, and inspirational story of how one young girl made peace with her past and triumphed over impossible odds to become a successful actress, recording artist, and, most improbably of all, a happy and healthy woman.

Traci Elizabeth Lords has starred in dozens of films and television shows, including Cry-Baby, Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, Melrose Place, and First Wave. Her groundbreaking album 1,000 Fires was a critical and dance club hit. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two cats. This is her first book.