'Queer Eye' star tackles racism in his memoir 'Naturally Tan'

You might know him from the French tuck or his distinctive hair.
But "Queer Eye's" fashion guru Tan France wants fans to get to know him beyond the surface. His new memoir "Naturally Tan" (St. Martin's Press, $27.99) provides a deeper look at the English designer's life.
As the title suggests, France speaks openly in the book about his skin color and how it's affected him from childhood to adulthood. He recently spoke with the Times about racism he's faced, his coming-out story and his advice for LGBTQ youth.

The book title and one of your chapters is "Naturally Tan." How did you land on that phrase?
Skin color, when I was writing the book, it just kept coming to mind. It kept bothering me: the notion of skin color and whether it's beautiful or desirable. And it's always pale. "White is right." So, that is why I wanted to talk about this.
It's my natural skin color. … And now it's given me so much confidence, where at one time of my life, when I was younger, it brought me so much distress and unhappiness. I thought that I would always be seen as less than. Now, the reason I was so happy to call it "Naturally Tan" is because I embrace my skin color so much. I think it's the most beautiful thing about my appearance.

When writing about your childhood in northern England, you describe a community that did not accept queer people nor families of Pakistani descent. What advice do you have for kids raised in environments in which they are also made to feel like "the other"?
The people who are raised in families like mine, I would say that we have to accept the fact that there hasn't been representation for our community the way there has for Caucasian communities. Therefore, we have to accept the fact that our families don't understand our lives as well.
Maybe be more open to the questions you might get, because people aren't as informed. And find people that you can connect with. We have the luxury of social media these days. I would suggest reaching out to people by finding them through hashtags or local Instagram handles.

Another challenging topic you delve into is your past experience suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts, not long before you landed "Queer Eye." Why was that important to include?
It was hard, but it felt important, because if I was going to write a book about my life, it should be a real book about my life and not just the rosy parts.
However, I made a point of making it a paragraph, I didn't belabor the point, because I didn't want it to be a situation where lesser publications use it as click bait like, "Oh, Tan France was suicidal." Well, yes, any of us go through a point where we are at our very lowest and we do things that are unwise. Thankfully, many of us find a way out of it with great support.

You said you used bleaching cream at one point as a kid. How has your family reacted to hearing that?
We never talked about skin bleaching ever as kids, but apparently every one of us wanted to try it at some point. My siblings were like, "Yeah, of course we wanted to give it a go." And some of them did, because they thought that that was the only way that people were going to see them as equal. I think every one of us in my family felt the pressure to be as pale as physically possible.
It's a horrible situation in many communities of color where people feel if you're not pale enough, you're not going to be successful. So, thankfully, my family is in a position where we can talk about it lightheartedly, because we've moved past that point.

You tell the story of when you first came out to a friend. But I noticed you never mention your coming-out story to your family, who had been less accepting of queer people. Was omitting that intentional?
I didn't talk about it because there are certain things that are very private to me, and family is one of them. Because I chose to do this job. I chose to allow fame into my life, and I don't want to take that choice away from my family. I never mentioned their names, because they didn't sign up for this. That was my choice.