Born in Derby, England, Young was discovered by The Jam frontman, Paul Weller, through an advertisement in Smash Hits magazine for his Respond Records label.

[4] Performing old soul numbers "Band of Gold" and "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" for the audition, Young impressed Weller enough to win the job and become his priority signing for the Respond label.

[7] Young was featured on the cover of the 9 April 1983 issue of New Musical Express with the banner "Tracie: The girl star Paul Weller would build".

[9] Signed to Respond, she had UK hit singles in March 1983 with "The House That Jack Built" and, in July, with "Give it Some Emotion" (both credited simply to 'Tracie')[2] Her debut album, Far from the Hurting Kind, was released in 1984 under the name Tracie.

[2] Young recorded with The Style Council again in 1985, contributing backing vocals to the song "Boy Who Cried Wolf", a single taken from the album Our Favourite Shop.

In 2010, with the co-operation of Young, Cherry Red Records reissued her 1984 debut Far from the Hurting Kind, marking the first time the album has been available in the UK on CD.