Traci Lords

Traci Elizabeth Lords is an American actress and singer. As a 15-year-old high-school dropout, she used fake identity documents to enter the sex industry, where she began appearing in pornographic magazines and films. The September 1984 edition of Penthouse featured her as its centerfold, and she went on to become one of the most sought-after pornographic actresses of the mid-1980s, appearing in an estimated 75 adult films and videos. According to her autobiography, she entered the adult film industry in October 1984, making her 16 years old at the time. In 1986, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received an anonymous tip that she had been a minor during her time in the industry. All pornographic material featuring Lords—except her last film, Traci, I Love You (1987), which had been shot two days after her 18th birthday—was removed from distribution in the United States as child pornography. Efforts to prosecute two producers and her former talent agent failed as Lords had used a stolen birth certificate to obtain a federal passport and California driver's license, thereby giving industry personnel a reasonable belief that she was over 18 at the time.