Karrueche Tran could best be described as a cultural entrepreneur. Much like the greats before her — modeling pioneers such as Ophelia DeVore and Helen Williams — Tran’s breathtaking luminosity reflects a new wave of Black women uninterested in labels or limitations.
Since 2011, Tran has enterprised her likeness, carving herself into beauty’s apartheid cabals and leveraging her sizable audience into precious commodity. She’s booked a bevy of ads with powerhouse companies like Viacom and ColorPOP and launched jewelry lines and ready-to-wear collabs. Last year, during global pause, Tran’s portrayal of The Bay’s Vivian Johnson-Garret garnered acclaim. Calling into the award show over Zoom, “in complete shock and disbelief,” Tran made history as the first Asian-Pacific-American to win a Daytime Emmy. Still, despite amassing widespread visibility and offering a counterweight to the constraints of Hollywood’s enfeebled imagination, Tran’s journey has not been yellow-bricked.
