She was signed as a recording artist and soon moved on to writing music for herself and other Motown artists. She also extended her talents to include photography and scriptwriting, contributing much to the screenplay for the 1972 film Lady Sings The Blues for which she received an academy award nomination. Here she recounts her life as a white girl immersed in black culture at a time of hard segregation, her experiences as part of the Motown music and film phenomenon and that photoshoot with an elephant and a donkey!