Tracy Turnblad

"'When I start to dance, I'm a movie star' – Tracy Turnblad, 'Good Morning Baltimore'"Tracy Turnblad is an overweight sixteen-year-old girl, whose dream of dancing on a local dance program “The Corny Collins Show” which leads her on a quest to integrate the all-white show. She is the daughter of Edna and Wilbur Turnblad.

Pre-1962
Tracy was born in 1947, and her parents swear she landed right on her feet. Her first words were "Mama" and "Cha-Cha."

1962
Tracy's life consists of going to school, watching The Corny Collins Show with her best friend, Penny, drooling over the show's heartthrob, Link Larkin, and doing "absolutely nothing else." In early June, council member Brenda announces she will be taking a leave of absence for nine months, leaving a space open for a new dancer on the show. Without skipping a beat, Tracy is determined to win the spot. While Wilbur, her father, encourages her to go for her dreams, her mother, Edna, is a little more apprehensive, worrying she'll be humiliated because of her weight.

Despite her mother's forbiddances, Tracy goes to the audition anyway, and as her mother feared, she is mocked by Velma Von Tussle, the show's producer, and the rest of the council.

Crushed by the upset, Tracy hits another snag, when she is sent to detention for her "monumental hair-don't" disrupting every other student's education. It is in detention where she meets Seaweed J. Stubbs, who shows her that you can emote everything through dance. He teaches her a few dances, which she ends up using at the sophomore sock hop, catching Corny and Link's eyes, and landing her the spot on the show.

That evening, she runs home to her mother, who could not be more thrilled for her daughter's overnight success, and she gets a call from Mr. Pinky, the owner of the Hefty Hideaway, who offers her a job as the store's official spokesmodel.