Euphoria

Euphoria, an American adaption of an Israeli show under the same name, is a HBO series first released in 2019. The series follows a group of teens in a fictional village known as ‘East Highland’ which is set in California. These teens are shown to navigate through life, trying to find hope while balancing the effects of topics such as love, loss and addiction, in a world full of pain, drugs, sexualisation, trauma, betrayal and social media.

Each one of its characters has their own struggles with one, or more of the issues listed above. I personally feel, although some scenes are likely dramatised for entertainment purposes, that Euphoria deserves immense credit for the way it effectively explores Mental Heath, and its surrounding issues, in a raw form. The show also highlights the effects each of these issues can have on the family, friends, support workers and peers around those suffering, not just the person themselves.

The show is narrated by main character Rue, but follows the lives of her, her family, and the people in her school. Not only does the show itself explore mental health topics that were extremely useful within my research, but I also believe characters; Maddie Perez, and Kat Hernandez, can have a huge influence on my hair, makeup, and costume choices. Both of these characters could fit within a grunge theme, with Maddie embracing dark femininity, and Kat loving all things alternative.

Maddie Perez

Played by Alexa Demie, Maddie Perez is a main character throughout the two current seasons of Euphoria. Her character is most recognised for having an on-off, toxic relationship with her boyfriend Nate Jacobs – who is shown to have many troubles of his own.

From a young age, Maddie was known to have competed in many beauty pageants, and was hugely successful due to her incredibly high levels of self confidence. However, after her pageant coach was arrested, and labelled a child molester, Maddie’s mum (understandably) made her quit. For a long time, Maddie resented her mother for this, as she felt she had no other option for her future. However, after a short while, Maddie found a love for just doing nothing.

After watching the 1995 film, Casino, Maddie began to idolise its main character Ginger Mckenna – a rich showgirl who used her looks to manipulate men in to supporting her wealth. Before long, she made the decision to study rich women, in order to become one herself, rather than waiting on them like her mother (a beautician) or being stuck in a relationship ‘with no love’ like her mother and father’s.

However, her idealisation of rich women lead to her convincing her boyfriend, Nate, to buy her expensive gifts, in return for -mainly sexual- favors. This in turn made Nate feel extremely powerful. However, Maddie ended up falling hopelessly in love with Nate, getting herself trapped in a toxic cycle of baring the weight of his emotions. Eventually their relationship became borderline abusive, but Maddie still felt she could not leave, as she loved him.

Soon after this began, Maddie became obsessed with objectifying herself in return for money, experiences and expensive gifts. She went to such extreme lengths that she even watched pornography videos, not for pleasure, just to study professionals and learn new techniques. The lengths Maddie’s character is willing to travel, in order to feel some kind of affection and empowerment, helps to really emphasise the harsh realities of living with mental health disorders.

Eventually, their relationship grew so toxic that every day Maddie was scared Nate would hurt her, but no matter how hard she tried she could not stop loving him. Which is funny, because her character is presented as one with no filter, who is stubborn and independent, and who projects her hurt on to others.

The images above, and below help to support my previously mentioned idea, that Maddie’s representation of dark femininity within her hair, makeup and fashion style could really help to inspire my work. The reoccurring creation of a dark, yet glamorous smokey makeup helps to build the idea there is more to this character than it seems. I would like to use a similar technique within my makeup, in order to represent the idea that a person suffering with mental health issues has a lot more going on that what can be seen on the surface.

Kat Hernandez

Kat was another main character during the first season of Euphoria, however took more of a backseat during the second season. Although she seems to have no family complications or traumas, and a reasonably good child hood, Kat has suffered with extremely low self-esteem throughout her school life. After spending years being known as the fat friend, Kat struggles with her confidence but is keen to change her reputation and become powerful, by loving herself regardless of what others may think.

During the sixth grade, Kat has her first relationship, and is seen often questing ‘why her’. Even though her boyfriend is lovely to her, she can not understand why he chose her over all the other girls she believes are prettier. However, at age 11, Kat goes on a family holiday where she is stung by a jellyfish. After this incident, she spends the following eight days of her holiday sunbathing by the pool, drinking mock-tails. A combination of large sugar intake, and lack of exercise over those few days, lead Kat to gain 20 pounds, meaning none of her clothes fit when she had returned home. Although he had been lovely before, her boyfriend then broke up with her, making her believe it was solely down to the changes in her appearance, therefore making her feel even less worthy than before.

This event began Kat’s downward spiral of struggling with self confidence, where she would doubt her worth and fantasise about having a healthy relationship by repeatedly watching romantic movies. However, during the summer before her freshman year of high school, Kat began writing fan fiction on tumbr, soon becoming one of the most popular creators on the platform. Even though she did not have this level of popularity in the real world, this helped Kat feel more worthy, helping to really boost her confidence levels – despite the fact that no one knew of her online fame, and she was often teased for her size and lack of love life.

Then, while attending summer school Kat became good friends with Joules, who convinces her that sex work will help to build her confidence. After being pressured in to having sex at a party, and filmed without her knowledge, a video of Kat was shared online. Although it was soon removed, after Kat threatened to go to the police, everyone in school began taking about Kat. Although these rumors were not positive, she did not care, everyone finally recognised her existence. Making the most of this opportunity, Kat decided to become an internet adult content creator, while wearing a mask so she could not be identified. The floods of men fussing over her body online, combined with her newfound recognition within school, made her feel extremely confident, worthy and powerful. 

It was not until after this, however, Kat became the it girl at school. With her new found levels of self love, Kat returned to school a new girl, and is admired for her new look. After discovering how popular she rally now was at school, she decided to quit her online content creating. However, this lead to Kat facing an identity crisis. After realizing she did not love her boyfriend, even though he was literally the best boyfriend she could imagine, she began to realize that quitting making her content had a huge adverse affect on her self confidence.

However, as she had now used her popularity to share messages about body positivity and empowerment, Kat chose to face her new battles alone, as she doesn’t want to admit she has fallen backwards in her road to recovery. She also can not explain her feelings, as no one knows about her internet persona, and these feelings have all arisen since she gave this up.

As shown in the images above, Kat embraced a darker side after revealing her new look to the school. She often wore dark and dramatic makeup looks, with heavily layered, and accessorised outfits. This character is the perfect representation of the grunge fashion, therefore I will be using her look as inspiration, towards my makeup, costume and prop designs.