Elisabeth Ovesen, better known as Karrine Steffans, recently opened up about retiring that persona, also called "Superhead." Moreover, she spoke to comedian Sam Jay about fame, living two different lives, and what it taught her about her own identity. For those of you who don't know, Ovesen (or Steffans) made a name for herself with her Vixen series of books. In them, she discussed topics of sexual exploitation, relationships, love, lust, and many more through a particularly hip-hop-centric lens. That was the industry in which she made it big. Upon her introduction in 2005, she opened broad cultural conversations on women's sexual empowerment and agency.
"What’s so funny is that when a woman has sexual autonomy, people assume she’s being used,” Ovesen remarked. “Seeing a woman play a man’s game and win at it was very disturbing to people. I live in it, so I create a persona for that perception to protect who I am as a person. Meanwhile, I’m in bed at 9, I’m watching The Golden Girls… I’m living my life the way I live my life, which is not the way my persona lives her life."
Elisabeth Ovesen Is Retiring Karrine Steffans and Superhead
Elsewhere in the interview, she said that publishers quickly wanted her to keep cranking out New York Times best-sellers. "Publishers did not want me to stop," the 44-year-old explained. "So they kept asking me to write the same book over and over again. I started a persona that nobody wanted me to finish. She had to keep going. By the time I got to my mid-thirties, I was like, 'Guys, I’ve grown and my son is getting older. I can’t continue to write this way.' So there was a time where the persona and the person went through a little war. The person was growing, and the person was learning, and the person was evolving. But the persona can’t."
Also, she said that retiring her pen name was a "difficult choice to make too. To get rid of Karrine was very difficult because she was my armor," she explained. Overall, hopefully this decision bodes well for Ovesen as she reflects on her life and moves forward to new and bright things. Stay up to date on HNHH for the latest news on Elisabeth Ovesen, Karrine Steffans, and Superhead.
