Karrine Steffans

Karrine Steffans (born August 24, 1978) is an American author, most notably of the Vixen series of books. She has worked as an actress and as a hip hop model, having appeared in more than 20 music videos, many by multiplatinum-selling rap artists. In 2007 and 2008, Steffans visited a number of college campuses to speak about her involvement in the hip-hop industry and its expectations of women. Steffans was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and moved to Florida when she was 10 years old. She has written about her troubled childhood: she grew up in poverty, suffered emotional and physical abuse at the hands of an alcoholic mother and indifferent father, and was raped when she was 13. She ran away at 16, and began working as an...