Cea Sunrise Person (born 1969) is a writer and former model best known as the author of ''North of Normal'', a 2014 memoir detailing her rustic upbringing in the wilderness of Alberta, British Columbia, and the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

. She lives in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada.

Early life

Prior to her birth, Person's grandfather moved the family around to locations in Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and California. Person's mother, Michelle, became pregnant with her at 15 years of age while living in California. The family moved again to Hills, British Columbia, and Person was born in the nearby town of New Denver in November 1969. Person grew up largely in the central Alberta and

wilderness with her mother, grandparents, and aunts. Members of her family adhered to a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

lifestyle, living off the land in makeshift

tipi A tipi or tepee ( ) is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on ...

s with other individuals and passersby. The family often hunted and foraged for food. Person recalls witnessing drug use, sexual acts, and open nudity as young as age 4. Person felt ostracized from her peers at a young age because of her unusual upbringing. She entered a modeling competition at age 13 and left to pursue her career in New York City.

Modeling career and later life

By age 15, Person was working as a high-fashion model in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and Paris and was also posing for photo shoots in

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. In her early–to-late 20s, she lived in Europe and worked as a catalogue model. At the age of 29, she retired from full-time modeling. She then moved to Vancouver where she started a

swimwear A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Different types and styles may be worn ...

company. In 2007, she began writing her memoir, ''North of Normal'', about her upbringing in the wilderness. The book details her early life prior to moving to Calgary and then starting her modelling career. The book underwent numerous revisions over 6 years before it was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

in 2014. She published a second memoir in 2017, ''Nearly Normal'', that details more of her experiences during her early and adult life. She lives in Vancouver and is married with three children. ''

North of Normal ''North of Normal'' is a 2022 Canadian drama film, directed by Carly Stone. Based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by Cea Sunrise Person, the film centres on her unconventional childhood living in the wilderness as the daughter of a hippie m ...

'', a feature film adaptation by

Carly Stone Carly Stone is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Personal life Stone was born and raised in Toronto, by parents who were immigrants from South Africa. She graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts majoring ...

of Person's book, premiered at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022. The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represente ...

.Radheyan Simonpillai
"10 Canadian films to watch at TIFF 2022"
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

'', August 17, 2022.

Works

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Person, Cea Sunrise Canadian non-fiction writers Living people 1969 births Writers from British Columbia People from the Regional District of Central Kootenay Female models from British Columbia Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian women memoirists