Victoria Rowell

Victoria Rowell

One glance at Victoria Rowell's jam-packed résumé and heavenly face, and it's easy to think she's led a perfect life. And in some ways, she has. As an adolescent, she danced with the American Ballet Theater and Twyla Tharp before becoming a cover girl for magazines such as Seventeen. Soon she transitioned to acting, and for eight seasons she simultaneously starred as the fiery Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless and as Dick Van Dyke's doctor colleague on Diagnosis Murder. (In a particularly memorable feat on Van Dyke’s show, she played both of those characters in a single episode!) After 17 tumultuous years on her signature soap, Rowell left Y&R in 2007 and created a bit of a stir by complaining about the show's lack of African-American writers. But she was on to bigger and better things: specifically, her best-selling memoir, The Women Who Raised Me, about her 18 years in the foster care system. These days, Rowell, who has two kids of her own, is focusing on her nonprofit organization, the Rowell Foster Children Positive Plan, which awards scholarships to help youngsters in the system study fine arts, sports and other cultural activities. In honor of National Foster Care Month, the actor and activist spoke with Time Out Kids about her efforts, her upcoming novel and why she thinks racism still plays a part in our everyday lives.

What have you been up to in honor of National Foster Care Month?
Just running, running, running! We had a fund-raiser last week, and tonight is our appreciation dinner for all the people who helped on our committee. More than half a million children are [in the system]. There’s a tremendous need for permanency, families and foster parents.

Your experience in foster care sounds like it was pretty positive.
Well, I think you have to make the best of it. I don’t think that any situation in foster care is ideal. It means something happened that prohibited children from staying with their natural families, something traumatic. It’s difficult to get media to shed light on the positive stories that come out of foster care. We’ve helped emancipated foster youth who are now in college or employed. We give away stipends for college. We don’t discriminate: community college, trade school, whatever the higher education is for that particular individual. I just want to encourage foster-care kids to never underestimate themselves.

I read that you’re working on a documentary about foster care.
Yes, The Mentor. I wrote, directed and produced it, and it’s been in several film festivals thus far. I’m also working on a new book, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva, which is coming out in the summer of 2010.

Is it another memoir?
Nope. It’s fiction, a novel. It’s a lot of fun. I did mesh some of my experiences into it.

Are your children involved in your activism?
Oh, absolutely, from the beginning. They’ve helped enormously with our annual Christmas party and our Thanksgiving food-bank drive. [The organization] started out in my house. We did garden parties, and our high tea event, underscoring National Foster Care Awareness Month, was held in my home for many years. They have done more than their share as young people in an effort to highlight the importance of this cause.

Did your experiences in foster care influence you as a parent?
Naturally. I obviously wanted to give my children the world, and have attempted to do that.

Have you ever taken in a foster child?
I have never been an official foster parent, but hundreds of foster children have come through my home.

What kind of activities do you do with your family during your free time?
My daughter, Maya, is going to be 20. I just spent Mother’s Day and my birthday with her in Brooklyn [where she lives]. We like going antiquing together. My son, Jasper, is 13, so he’s not that keen on that. He’s an artist and plays two instruments.

Like his dad, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis?
Yeah; he’s also a graphic artist. Maya rides horses and plays the drums. And of course we go to the theater.

When you left Y&R, you stirred up controversy by complaining about the lack of African-Americans involved with the show.
Color television isn’t color television until there is integration of all people behind the camera. When I came on the show, we shot to No. 1 and stayed there. The audience is predominantly African-American women. Twenty-five million people watch the show domestically, and that’s not counting the 22 foreign countries in which we air, including those on the continent of Africa. Those stats are not lost on me. While it was wonderful to hear the accolades from so many blacks and non-blacks who said, “Wow, you represent,” I said, “Thank you, but I don’t feel represented behind the camera.” There were no people of color doing our hair and makeup; no writers of colors on the show in 37 years. If that’s controversy, fine. I think it’s controversial that that hasn’t changed in so many decades. When you’re in a position of power, you can’t just sit there and gloat and collect your paycheck. You’re not put in that position by accident; you’re put there by the design of a higher power, and you’d better make a difference. I give that message everywhere I go.

Read more celebrity interviews