You've said Cher was inspired by Clueless, which is one of your favorite movies, but why Strauberry?
It's Strauberry, because my last name has always been Straub, and kids at school would just call me Strawberry. So like, I just changed the spelling, or I've left the spelling depending on which way you look at it.
If your life was a movie, it would be called ________.
Ooh, um Maybe Later.
Your mother is a mortuary cosmetologist. Did that have any hand in sparking your interest in makeup?
Maybe? Oh my God, I've never even thought of it. She did do that, but it wasn't her only job. I never really thought about it like that. I think it was more my sisters, like in high school. One sister was a cheerleader, and I think it was her mostly.
Can you speak a little more to how your sister encouraged you to pursue makeup?
I'm trying to think about it. Sorry, I did just wake up. Um, okay. How did I get into makeup? I really don't fucking know. I guess it was more my sister, 'cause I would have all these cheerleaders at my house all the time.
You've spoken in the past about transitioning in front of the Internet. What's your current relationship with social media like? Has it evolved?
Ooh, that's a good question. I do love the Internet, and I love going live on Instagram and doing my makeup there. Tons of girls—when I first transitioned, I only knew one or two makeup lists. And when I would go live and do my makeup or whatever, all of these girls would chime in and give me tons of tips and tell me like, "Oh, you should use this color corrector instead of the one you're using, 'cause it's better for your skin tone and like what you're trying to like get rid of." And I'd be like, "What the fuck, really?" And it would totally work all the time. And then, I just kind of had a bump of girls chiming and helping me through Instagram Live.
But I do love Instagram a lot. It's weird to find like—I don't know. Sometimes it's really nice, 'cause I don't have a lot of like—I'm not really close with family or anything like that. So, sometimes it's really nice to be on Instagram and have people hit me up and say nice things. But they can also be the exact opposite of that too.
And now, it's more followers than I've ever had, but it's kind of just like a little blown out too. It was kind of fun when it was more tight-knit, and I knew a lot of my followers. Now when I can post something or go live, anything could happen, you know what I mean? People can be like super rude, mean or just out of pocket, or like just messaging me to try to buy Supreme clothes or like just like weird shit. It's love-hate basically.
Building off of that, do you get inspired by makeup looks that you see on Instagram or YouTube?
I like old riot girl books and zines and stuff. I pretty much like old punk books. That's where I find more of my inspo from. But I do save pictures on Instagram if I see someone's make-up that I like.
It sounds like you have a special relationship with Unity Skateboarding, which office actually featured in Issue 11. Can you speak a little bit to your role with the company?
Oh yeah, I met Jeffrey and Gabriel a long time ago through music. Then they made Unity and started it basically, but it pretty much started 'cause me and my friend Stevie were skating in this parking garage. And we all knew each other from music and art, but none of us knew that the other ones skateboarded at all. And then I got my first skateboard in like 10 years or 11 years or something. So we would skate in this parking garage together, just me and Stevie. Then, Jeffrey saw us doing it on Instagram, and he was like, "Oh my God, you guys skate? I used to skate all the time, and I want to come skate with you guys." Then we were like, "Oh, what?! Jeffrey skates!" And then we would all skate around together in this parking garage. And after like three times of doing it, Jeffrey just told us that he ordered 10 skateboards on eBay and that he's going to start a company called Unity Skateboarding and asked us if we would ride for it. Now it's just completely crazy, and it's like, I'm a pro skateboarder.
What's a phrase you find yourself saying often?
"I'm so sure" from the movie Valley Girl.
When did you first realize that people look up to you and the things you've accomplished?
Well, I still trip out on that a lot. I first realized mostly through Instagram probably like a year ago. My message requests are still at like 99 plus. They have been for over a year and a half or something. I would go through the message requests, and tons of it would be people being just super fucked up honestly, being like really mean and gnarly. I've even gotten death threats out there and shit. But there'd be so many kids who were like, "I live in this rural town, and like, you're the best. I love your music." So pretty much, I guess that's like the first time I noticed that. It's kind of overwhelming to think about, so I don't think about it too much. I try to tell kids to follow their hearts all the time. But yeah, I don't know if it's really like hit me.