 Most know Hunter Schaefer from Euphoria in which she portrays Jules, a transgender girl trying to figure out who she is and how she fits into the world. In reality, Hunter has a story similar to Jules. Recently, Hunter stunned on the red carpet for an Oscars party in a daring get-up consisting of not much else other than a feather covering her top half. As a trans woman whose rise to fame was linked to her gender identity, Hunter is no stranger to having her body judged constantly online. The comment sections on her Instagram posts often turn into forums where followers dare to ask intimate questions about the trans experience or about Hunter's womanhood. But, either way, we can't deny that Hunter's beauty has been turning heads and this Oscars look is just one example, so let's look at Hunter's before and after transformation over the years. Born in 1998, two Mac and Katie Schaefer Hunter grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. During Hunter's childhood, she showcased her love for the arts, but from a very young age she knew that she didn't identify as a boy and she would spend most of her youth discovering herself. Hunter's appearance may have changed over the years, but her love of the arts never changed. When she was 16, she was attending the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and was one of the semi-finalists for visual arts in the U.S. Presidential Scholar Program. As a youth, Hunter accomplished a lot more than just art goals. While she was in high school, she also protested against the North Carolina public facilities, Privacy and Security Act, and in 2016, when Hunter was a high school junior, she was added as a plaintiff in the a car cow vs. McCrory lawsuit against the bill. So she was always passionate about activism too. While Hunter would eventually undergo gender reassignment surgery, she began treatment much earlier before she even hit puberty with the help of hormone blockers. Not to mention Hunter claims from her earliest memories that she already knew who she was destined to be. In an interview with North Carolina Public Radio, Hunter revealed that she had always been drawn to femininity. Her mother noticed this when Hunter was only two years old. She had no interest in the things that boys typically adored at that age. And instead of getting excited over male superheroes, Hunter was drawn to heroes such as Catwoman and Hawke Girl. By the time Hunter turned three and attended preschool, it was obvious that she liked to express herself as a girl. While the boys in her class would pick fireman costumes, she'd put on dresses. Hunter told Teen Vogue that each class member got a turn to pick something from a treasure box at the end of the week. And she once chose a lip gloss ring. She didn't really know what it was at the time, but she loved putting the glittery gloss on her lips. Even though Hunter's small town life in North Carolina could be boring, she admitted that it taught her how to get creative. Shopping at stores such as Zara for fashionable items wasn't yet an option. Hunter explained that was a special treat that maybe happened once every three years if we got out of North Carolina. That being said, this inspired Hunter to make do with what she had and used clothes from Goodwill to design her own, so she was always interested in unique fashion. When Hunter was in seventh grade, she finally had the courage to tell her parents she was gay, which was the first step in discovering her true self. She said in an interview about this, coming out as gay, that sent me apart enough for me to think about what else sent me apart. And this was the same year that Hunter came to the terms with the idea that she might not be a boy. Then in eighth grade, she dealt with serious anxiety that came along with feeling like she was trapped in the wrong body. She recalled this in an interview with North Carolina Public Radio saying, I was later in the year and I could start to see peach fuzz on my upper lip. I was just really worried that I was starting to develop these secondary sex characteristics, especially facial hair just terrified me. That was something that just did not resonate with me at all. I don't really know why. Gender dysphoria is mostly this feeling of just dread and wrongness. Watching shows like Glee and talking with people who could explain various LGBT terms to her is what helped Hunter discover that she wanted to transition. When Hunter first began transitioning, she hid it from her parents. Her close friends knew and they would give her makeup such as mascara, which Hunter took off before she went home. It was a challenging journey and eventually Hunter told her parents so the transitioning process could truly begin. And in an interview with the New York Times, Hunter shared that she first had to undergo extensive therapy before she could start hormonal treatment. And for her, it was hard knowing that the final decision was actually up to the therapist. Hunter's main surgery was far from the first step in her journey though. She began treatment earlier before she hit puberty with the help of hormone blockers. These work by blocking the hormones to stoss their own and or estrogen that can lead to puberty related changes in your body, which would stop things such as waist deepening and facial hair growth. Then Hunter would go on to have gender reassignment surgery after she turned 18. This is usually a final and major step for someone so they can reflect their self-identified gender. There are actually a variety of procedures to achieve this. These can include facial plastic surgery, top surgery and bottom surgery. And it's known that Hunter underwent bottom surgery. Her treatment was carried out by Deanna Adkins, the endocrinologist at the Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center. Hunter felt the entire transitioning process was drawn out, likely because for her, life only really started once she transitioned. She said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar, mostly everything before I transitioned is a blur. And she added that her euphoria co-stars Zendaya has remarked that Hunter doesn't usually talk about her childhood. Hunter claims that it's because she feels like back then, she wasn't living as her authentic self and added, it's a little bit sad but also true to say that I feel like the story of my life begins in my late teens when I was finally living in the world the way I was supposed to. When your exterior world and your body and yourself are not in line with who you are, you turn inward. My theory is that I built a really rich inner world until I started feeling like myself in the body. Hunter identifies as a trans woman these days and explained that the internet helped her figure out her gender identity as well as others transition timelines. She has stated I do like people to know that I'm not a cis girl because that's not something that I am or feel like I am. I'm proud to be a trans person. In 2019, Hunter said she was quote-on-quote closer to what you might call a lesbian, but then in 2021, she explained on Twitter that her sexuality is bi or pan or something. Her Hunter portraying Jules on the hit series Euphoria at the very role that made her famous was like taking a step back into her past. She revealed that she hadn't really taken the time to reflect on her journey since she was too busy fighting to make it to the other side of her transition. Having to perform in the character of Jules however, who is also a trans woman, made Hunter look back at her own experiences. She found that she could use some of them to portray the character as truthfully as possible and added, As we work through different scenes, I'd have to remember a new detail to dig up an artifact from within myself and hold on to that moment for the scene. Previously, Hunter told The Hollywood Reporter that she could understand some of Jules' erratic behavior in the first Euphoria episode that might seem confusing to others because she's been in Jules shoes before and she knows what it feels like. Hunter said that there is a lot of her and her Euphoria character Jules which helped her nail her first acting gig. She told Harper's Bazaar, Lured lines between an actor and character make a deeper character. The work of an actor is trying to simulate a full life. Some people might say that that doesn't make me as strong an actor, but that's how I learned. The topic of Jules being a trans woman on the HBO series gets explored even further in her special standalone episode of anyone who's not a sea blob in season one. In an interview, Hunter opened up about this episode, which she also co-wrote and shared how much of herself she poured into Jules here. She said, The episode, there's a lot of me in it and even Jules is a character in the first season. A lot of my experiences fall in line with hers or Samso, it's a bit of a mixture of both of us. In this special episode, Hunter's character has an in-depth therapy session where she talks about her transition going off of her hormones and her life struggle to quote unquote conquer femininity. While we can definitely see that it worked for Hunter Schaefer to really do an amazing job in playing Jules, and her real life story is even more inspiring. That's going to wrap up today's before and after video though, but before we go, answer this question for me. If you're a fan of Euphoria, who is your favorite character and why? Answer that question while we wait for the show to come back and let me know in the comments below. Don't forget to like, subscribe and turn on your notifications. My name is Kira the Vampire Slayer. Follow me on Instagram to chat further and I'll see you all in another video. Bye!