Cea Sunrise Person Biography

Cea Sunrise Person (born 1969) is a writer and former model best known as the author of North of Normal, a 2014 bestselling memoir detailing her rustic upbringing in the wilderness of Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon. Person also spent 16 years as an international model. She currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Early life

Prior to her birth, Person's grandfather (colloquially known as "Papa Dick") moved the family around to locations in Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Washington, Wyoming and California. Person's mother, Michelle, became pregnant with her at 16 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 1969.

Person grew up largely in the central Alberta and Yukon wilderness with her mother, grandparents, and aunts. Members of her family adhered to a hippie lifestyle, living off the land in makeshift tipis with other individuals and passersby. The family often hunted and foraged for food. As young as age 4, Person can recall witnessing drug use, sexual acts, and open nudity. 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 markets like Manhattan and Paris and was also posing for photo shoots as far away as Mauritius. 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 company.

In 2007, she began writing her memoir, North of Normal, about her upbringing in the wilderness. The book largely details her early life prior to moving to Calgary at age 9 and then starting her modelling career at age 13. The book underwent numerous revisions over the course of 6 years before it was finally published by HarperCollins in 2014. She is currently working on a second memoir that details more of her experiences during her early and adult life. She still lives in Vancouver and is married with three children.

Works

• North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Counterculture Family and How I Survived Both (2014, HarperCollins)