Traci Lords' UNDERNEATH IT ALL: The Rise of a 15-Year-Old Teen Porn Star

Here's Amazon's description of Traci Lords' memoir Underneath It All:

At 14, Nora Kuzma ran away from home and ended up on the dirty streets of Hollywood. She fell in with a fast crowd, and her dreams of modelling soon landed her a spectacular centrefold in Penthouse Magazine, where at 15 she became internationally known as TRACI LORDS. From there she appeared in numerous adult films and magazines, denying her past and battling a deep addiction to cocaine and men. Three years later she got out. This is her memoir [...] 

Underneath It All's Back Cover

A clipping of a newspaper article posted on the back cover of the memoir adds to the description of Traci's career in teen porn:

15-year-old runaway Nora Louise Kuzma, now known in the sex industry as Traci Lords, was indentified yesterday as the child porn star of more than 20 explicit hardcore [teen] sex films, according to the FBI. Sources requesting anonymity claimed that Ms. Lords was brought half naked and under the influence [...] 

Although, this memoir is supposed to be a cautionary tale, it reads more like a teen sexuality expliotation tale. For example:

Less than half of the memoir is about Traci's career in teen porn, but one wouldn't know that from the misleading yet bawdy double entendre title. 

On the front cover, Traci is straddling a black chair in a cleavage-baring short red silk dress. 

10-Year-Old "Traci" on Christmas Day

And on the back cover is a picture of Traci, in a lace bra, next to the title of a newspaper clipping "15-Year-Old Schoolgirl Stars in Porn Films". The book even includes, in the chapter "The Curse of the C Cups", a photograph of 10-year-old "Traci" in a pair of white panties. 

15-Year-Old Nora Kuzma\Traci Lords
Redondo High School (1984)

Interestingly, at the end of the book, Traci expresses her displeasure with her teen porn career; but oddly, she kept her porn name. 

On page ten, Traci shared that when she was 10 and in the 4th grade, she fantasized about being kissed on her panties by Ricky - a 16-year-old high school student. 

"I wondered what it would feel like to get kissed on my panties, and fantasized about my new [boy] friend, Ricky, doing the kissing [...] I was ten, he was sixteen [...]"

(Traci wrote that Ricky raped her in a field and left her: "[...] alone, bloody and naked in the dark.") 

Roger, prematurely balding, was the boyfriend of Traci's mother. Traci wrote that while her mother was driving Roger's lime green van, Traci awoke, topless, to find Roger standing over her and zipping up his pants. Roger referred to Traci's fountains as "little poached eggs". Subsequently, Traci awoke to find Roger's fingers inside of her. 

Interestingly, after Traci's mother left Roger for Daniel, Roger's friend, Traci remained in close contact with Roger. "I started smoking Marlboro reds, ditching classes, and crashing out at Roger's when I was too wasted to go home."

Dee Dee, Traci's 13-year-old neighbor and junior high schoolmate, gave Traci a kiss after lunch. Traci shared: "[...] it was exciting. I breathed in the sweetness of her skin. She smelled of vanilla, and, strangely, I wanted to kiss her again."

Traci's junior high band teacher informed Traci that he appreciated her beauty and offered to buy her dinner. She dropped out of band the next day, but she shared that the experience: "[...] made me feel wanted. I longed for the that attention."

18-Year-Old Traci Lords in Traci, I Love You

Traci shared that her first love was Dean. Dean was a 17-year-old surfer boy and a senior, and Traci was a 14-year-old sophomore at Redondo High. Despite his promise to pull out, Dean got Traci pregnant in his parent's bathroom shortly after Traci's 15th birthday. (Roger drove Traci to the abortion clinic.)

The next day, with a borrowed birth certificate, Traci went to the DMV and walked out of the facility as a 22-year-old and a burgeoning teen porn star. 

Afterwards, Roger drove Traci to see Mr. North, a modeling agent, whom Traci found in an advertisement. As Traci and Roger entered Mr. North's office, Traci heard, "She gets paid double for a DP and she chooses the guys." 

18-Year-Old Traci Lords
Los Angeles (1986)

Before Traci showed Roger her fake ID, the 15-year-old posed, topless, for some Polaroids for her new agent. 

The next day, Traci had her first paid ($250) photoshoot. She described herself as being "the center of attention" - "important, even powerful". She wrote that her teen sexuality gave her "control". "I got off on the power my body held over that entire room of adults." And this is how she described her first photoshoot:

"As I lay on the bed, the photographer showed me where he wanted my rear end. Then he asked me to really arch my back as I bent forward. Cupping my naked breast, I slid my panties off, closed my eyes, and made the kissy face Tim North taught me."

"I spread my legs and caressed my breasts"

Later, 16-year-old Traci was hired to model for Penthouse, which she described as a "total ego trip", because she was "[...] the flavor of the moment, the It girl."  And she shared that any doubts that she had about posing nude were "overruled" by her "[...] insatiable desire for attention." And that she "[...] got off on the idea of getting away with it all."

Penthouse (September 1984)

To make the other porn stars even more jealous of her $5,000 Penthouse gig that ended up being the best selling issue of all-time (September 1984 with teen Vanessa Williams), Traci "cozied up to North" "cooed softly in his ear" and "gave him a wet kiss that left him smiling".

But before Penthouse, Traci had her first photoshoot with a man. "A stunning man in his early twenties [...]" "During the photo shoot I found myself completely turned on and hoped to God no one could tell."

The next day, Traci decided to leave Roger, walked into the Poop Deck bar, "my t-shirt clinging to my breasts" and after drinks, went home with Blue Eyes whom she described as a "forgettable lover". Shockingly, the next morning, the nymphet left Blue Eyes' apartment with 22-year-old Sonny, the roommate, and weeks later she was washing Sonny's "dirty underwear in the kitchen sink".

Traci, I Love You

Unsurprisingly, after Penthouse, Traci graduated to pornographic films. Traci's first film was a softcore film with no nudity "All I had to do was walk around the pool in a bikini during the party scene." But for some reason, after the wrap, Traci had sex in the kitchen with Tom Byron. Someone decided to film it, and the rest his history. "Over the next six months I starred in twenty X-rated films." And she filmed her last film in France, Traci, I Love You, about two years later on the morning after her 18th birthday. (Reportedly, Traci sold the rights to Traci, I Love You for $100.000)

Of porn, Traci wrote:

[...] I had given in to a feeling I had never known during sex - power. And with that power came pleasure."

"Freedom, peace, revenge, sex, power. I had finally found a place to put my energies [...]"

"Porn was a power trip for me."

"Sex on-camera fed a very specific hunger in me. It was the best drug of all."

"Porn made me the kind of girl people [...] paid attention to, and that's what is was all about."