Before the neon-drenched sets of Euphoria and the high-fashion runways of Milan, Hunter Schafer was a teenager in North Carolina just trying to exist. Honestly, it’s a period of her life that gets flattened into a simple "before and after" narrative far too often. But when you look at the facts, her life before the global fame wasn't just a waiting room. It was loud. It was political.
And it was incredibly creative.
Most people see the "pre-transition" era of a trans person as a period of hiding, but for Hunter, the timeline is more of a gradual unfolding. She’s been open about the fact that she’s felt a persistent need for femininity since she was a toddler—basically as long as she can remember.
The North Carolina "Bathroom Bill" and a Teenager Named Hunter
The most vital thing to understand about Hunter Schafer pre transition is that she didn't just walk into activism once she was famous. She was a 17-year-old high school junior when she became the youngest plaintiff in a massive ACLU lawsuit.
The year was 2016. North Carolina had just passed House Bill 2, or HB2. You might remember it as the "bathroom bill." It was a piece of legislation that effectively banned trans people from using restrooms that matched their gender identity in government buildings and schools.
At the time, Hunter was a student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). She was already living as a girl. She was using the women's restroom and staying in the girls' dorms. Suddenly, the state legislature told her that her presence in those spaces was illegal.
She didn't just quietly comply.
Instead, she joined the lawsuit Carcaño v. McCrory. She wrote a moving essay for Teen Vogue while she was still in high school, explaining that using the men’s room felt like a "sentence to eternally hold it in."
She felt like an outlaw for a natural bodily function. Think about that for a second. While most juniors are stressing over prom or SATs, she was giving depositions and fighting the state government.
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What Her Early Transition Actually Looked Like
Hunter has shared that the transition wasn't a light switch moment. It was a slow, sometimes "drawn-out" process. She came out as gay in the seventh grade. Looking back, she told WUNC that coming out as gay was the catalyst; it set her apart and made her think about what else set her apart.
She started experiencing gender dysphoria in eighth grade and officially came out as trans in the ninth grade.
During those early years, things were complicated. She’s mentioned sneaking makeup from friends and putting it on in school bathrooms. She’d buy $20 heels from Sears and hide them in her backpack.
Her parents, Katy and Mac Schafer, were supportive, but it wasn't instant. Her father is a Presbyterian minister. They had to do their own research and go through their own journey of understanding. Hunter has noted that they’ve "come such a long way" from those early, confusing days.
- Born: December 31, 1998, in New Jersey.
- Moved: Lived in Arizona before settling in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Family: Oldest of four siblings.
- Education: Transferred from Needham B. Broughton High School to UNCSA for visual arts.
The "Secret" Life of a Visual Artist
If you want to understand Hunter Schafer pre transition, you have to look at her art. Long before she was Jules, she was a prolific illustrator.
She wasn't just doodling in the back of class. Her work was good. Really good. She was a semifinalist in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program because of her visual arts talent. She used to post her watercolors and photography on Instagram, gaining a following before she ever stepped in front of a film camera.
In high school, she used her art to process what she was going through. She designed clothes that often had political or activist messages baked into them. At one point, she actually planned to move to London to study clothing design for non-binary people at Central Saint Martins.
That was the dream. Acting was a total fluke that happened later.
Why She’s Tired of Talking About It
Here’s the part that catches some fans off guard: Hunter is kind of over the "trans-focused" interviews.
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In a 2024 interview with GQ, she made it clear that she doesn't want to be a professional activist for the rest of her life. She worked incredibly hard to get past the difficult points of her transition. Now, she just wants to be a girl and move on.
It’s a nuance that’s easy to miss. You can be proud of your history and the fight you put up without wanting that fight to be the only thing people see when they look at you.
She’s stated that she’s turning down trans roles now. She wants to play characters where her gender isn't the main plot point. Honestly, after everything she went through in North Carolina—the depositions, the lawsuits, the public essays at 17—can you blame her?
Real Insights for the Future
Understanding Hunter's journey isn't just about celebrity trivia. It's about seeing the person behind the "icon" label.
- Identity is a process. Hunter’s shift from coming out as gay to realizing she was trans shows that self-discovery isn't always a straight line.
- Activism is exhausting. She proved you can change the world before you’re 20, but you also have the right to grow past that role.
- Creative outlets save lives. Her focus on visual arts provided a "solitary comfort zone" during her most difficult years of dysphoria.
If you’re looking to follow in her footsteps, focusing on your craft—whether it’s art, writing, or something else—is often the best way to anchor yourself when the world feels like it's trying to define you.
Check out her early illustrations if you can find them online; they offer a much deeper look into her perspective than any red carpet interview ever could.