The Stunning Transformation Of Barbie Ferreira
Barbie Ferreira, otherwise known as Kat Hernandez on the HBO Max drama "Euphoria," is an American model and actress best known for her time on the hit teen show. The self-conscious yet fierce and bold Kat was a breakout star in the first two seasons, but unfortunately will not return for Season 3 of the show, breaking the hearts of many viewers (including ours).
Ferreira, who was born and raised in Queens, New York in 1996 (via IMDb), got her start in the industry working as a model on campaigns for multiple brands, including American Apparel, Misguided, and Aerie. According to Seventeen, Ferreira was raised by her Brazilian mother and grandmother, and is a Sagittarius queen. Ferreira is well-known for not only her time on "Euphoria," but also for being outspoken over the years about the body positivity movement throughout her modeling career.
On and off-camera, Ferreira is the ultimate star. Want to learn more about her modeling career, relationships, and Tumblr fame? Keep reading to see the stunning transformation of Barbie Ferreira.
As a child, she struggled with body image issues
Similar to her character on "Euphoria," Barbie Ferreira started experiencing body image issues and began dieting as young as 5 years old. In an interview with Glamour in July 2016, the then-19-year-old curve model opened up about how she learned to have confidence in herself and her body, and how others should embrace and "celebrate their differences."
"'I am more than just a curvy girl," she said. "I used to diet all the time as a kid. I started dieting in, like, kindergarten. I don't recommend it, but I also don't judge people who want to do things with their bod[ies]."
Ferreira has been a strong voice in the body-positive movement for many years, and has shared that she's faced her fair share of dubious comments from the media. "It's not radical for me to be wearing a crop top," she said in an interview with Who What Wear in 2022. "[Comments like those are] just backhanded compliments. I've been doing this since I was 16. I'm 25."
Barbie Ferreira modeled for American Apparel and other brands as a teen
Barbie Ferreira began modeling when she turned 16 years old, and her career quite literally skyrocketed. Soon enough, she was working and modeling for major brands, including American Apparel, Asos, Forever 21, H&M, and Missguided (via The U.S. Sun). In an interview with Paper magazine back in June 2019, Ferreira opened up about her experience when first starting out in the modeling industry, and how difficult it was to deal with insecurities. "When I was 16 and I started modeling, I was very insecure about myself to the point where I didn't wear any revealing clothes," she said. "Everything was strategically placed on my body to hide my love handles, you know, just very specific. When my first modeling pictures came out, it was totally new to see someone who was a bigger girl in something that wasn't necessarily a plus-size brand."
At the time, Ferreira received an intense amount of online backlash about her body. She learned to ignore the haters and embrace her truest self as she moved forward in her career. "It's either I succumb to what people are saying and just think of myself as someone who's unworthy, who's ugly, or whatever it is, or I celebrate myself. And that similarity with Kat [Katherine Hernandez from "Euphoria"] rings so true," she said.
She has worked on a series of different modeling campaigns
In 2016, Barbie Ferreira worked on a number of different modeling campaigns as a curve model for various brands that embrace all body shapes and sizes. Cosmopolitan reported in June of that year that Ferreira was the face of clothing brand Missguided's campaign. The campaign featured an array of bodycon dresses from sizes 12 to 20 and displayed unedited photographs of the "Euphoria" star with a statement that read, "Plus isn't the word, we are here to empower girls to dress however they want, regardless of size."
Ferreira made it clear that she doesn't appreciate people telling her what to wear. "I wanted to wear whatever ... I wanted to wear," Ferreira said about her style. "If someone tells me I couldn't because of my size, I just feel like it's super irrelevant. It's clothes, wear what you think is cute. [They're] not meant to make you look skinny."
In January 2016, Ferreira also participated in Aerie's #AerieREAL campaign alongside four other models with different figures (via Cosmopolitan). The campaign is designed to celebrate women's natural bodies. Ferreira discussed the importance of embracing your natural beauty, stating that brands should not digitally retouch their models' images. "Not being retouched in the images is something that's very important to me," Ferreira said in the campaign. "People knowing that's what I look like without anyone's perception of what my body needs to look like."
In 2013, she was well-known for her Tumblr following
If you were on Tumblr during the site's prime time during 2014-2016, then you've definitely seen Barbie Ferreira's page back when she was a teenager (via Seventeen). Ferreira was an active Tumblr user and had a massive following on the site. In an interview with Dazed in October 2021, the "Euphoria" star looked back on her time as an OG Tumblr girl and described her style back then. "I used to have hair down to my a**, a septum piercing, and really dark purple lipstick. It was called 'Pale Grunge Blog,' so that was very much the aesthetic. I would take photos on Photo Booth and it was very grunge," she said.
Although Ferreira admits that at times, certain outfits she wore back then were "embarrassing," she doesn't regret any of her fashion choices that were once so popular. "I mean, it was cute and I loved it, but everything was a fashion faux-pas. I don't know, I used to wear a lot of streetwear brands, which is just funny to me now because it's not something I go for anymore," she said, via Dazed. "But I don't actually regret any looks, per se. You know, I think I was a pretty fashionable teen."
Barbie Ferreira wrote a popular One Direction fan fiction
If you are an avid "Euphoria" watcher, then you must remember that iconic One Direction fan fiction scene that Barbie Ferreira's character Kat Hernandez created, which eventually sky-rocketed her online fame during the first season. Aside from her character, Ferreira was also a big One Direction fan in real life back in the day. In an interview with Refinery29, Ferreira opened up about the connection between her and her character's involvement in the One Direction fandom. "It hit close to home," she said. "I think it's cool because this is specific [to this generation]. Fan fiction gets millions of reads."
However, Louis Tomlinson was not too thrilled with the "Euphoria" episode featuring the cartoon fan fiction, where he was the star alongside his former One Direction band member, Harry Styles. In the episode, the cartoon showed Tomlinson and Styles engaging in sexual acts backstage before a performance, under the "ship name" Larry Stylinson. Tomlinson tweeted that he "was not contacted" about the fan fiction, and did not "approve it" before it was aired.
In an interview with Out in July 2019, Ferreira opened up about the cultural impact Larry Stylinson had on the fandom off-screen. "It was the first time that I saw this kind of level of fandom, and to get the insight into Kat's mind ... we don't shy away from being so real that it's uncomfortable," she said.
She doesn't want to be known as a plus-size model
Barbie Ferreira has been very outspoken throughout her modeling and acting career about her feelings on labeling plus-size models based on their body shape and size. In an interview with W magazine in March 2016, she said, "I don't really like it. I think they have that term because people like to put everything in little boxes. Plus-size modeling, I think, is an unnecessary term. We are going to get the jobs we are going to get that we usually wouldn't in the near future. At one point, I think it's just going to be modeling."
Growing up as a curve model, Ferreira was labeled a plus-size model early in her career, and is asked countlessly about her body positivity and activism efforts. In an interview with Vogue UK, Ferreira said she wants to normalize the idea that she doesn't need a label to make a change. "Stepping into a career that has historically had rigid standards of beauty, people definitely projected me as this body-positive activist, and I owned that in the beginning," she said. "But over the years, I've found my own version of that, where it's not just about size. Now I'm kind of more like, 'Let's just shake this whole thing up.'"
Barbie Ferreira has been dating musician Elle Puckett since 2019
Barbie Ferreira has been with her long-term partner, Elle Puckett, since 2019. According to Warm Audio, Puckett is a musician who currently resides in Los Angeles, California and works under the pseudonym Rosie Ugly. Puckett's band, Poema, is run by Puckett and their sister Shealeen Puckett.
One fun fact about the couple: They have matching tattoos. In March 2022, Yahoo! reported that the two spent their Valentine's Day gifting each other matching tattoo designs. Ferreira shared an Instagram story showing her and Puckett side by side posing with their new designs, and shared a post on Instagram with the caption, "love of my life."
This isn't the first time Ferreira and Puckett dabbled in getting tattoos together. While speaking with Cosmopolitan in September 2020, Ferreira shared that her first tattoo was actually given by Puckett after Ferreira gave them a stick-and-poke tattoo kit as a gift. Ferreira revealed that the tattoo of a spiral figure on her butt represents "a spiral for my quarantine spiral."
The actress is featured in a series of movies and TV shows
Although Barbie Ferreira is well-known for her iconic role as Kat Hernandez in "Euphoria," there are plenty more TV shows where that came from. According to IMDb, Ferreira has been featured in several other projects, including "Robot Chicken," "The Afterparty," "Unpregnant," "Divorce," and "Nope." However, the internet was broken after Ferreira made her bittersweet announcement that she plans on leaving "Euphoria" and saying goodbye to her iconic character.
According to Variety, Ferreira shared the news on Instagram. "After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I'm having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye. I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today," she wrote. "I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it. Love you Katherine Hernandez."
As sad as we are that one of our favorite characters is no longer on the show, Ferreira has already moved on to new projects. The Hollywood Reporter announced right after Ferreira's departure that she has joined the cast of Amazon Prime Video's "House of Spoils," a psychological thriller.
Barbie Ferreira's career took off after being cast in Euphoria
Being cast in HBO Max's "Euphoria" in the role of Kat Hernandez was a major turning point in Barbie Ferreira's career. Although she was featured in multiple TV series before her time on the teen show and had established a modeling career, many hearts were broken after learning that our favorite Tumblr-using cam girl will no longer be on the series. However, Ferreira and her character are similar in more ways than one. In an interview with Out, Ferreira revealed that she was similar to Kat as a teenager simply based on their shared love for One Direction. "I was deeply in love with Harry Styles. That's like, my husband. You know? But I was in the fandom. I started modeling at roughly the same age that Kat has her little transformation. It has so many parallels," she said.
Aside from her love for boy bands, Kat also struggles with self-confidence and body image issues, which is something Ferreira has been open about in her personal life. In an interview with The New York Times, Ferreira spoke about how she's dealt with similar issues to her character. "I also hated myself for so long, as a lot of young girls do, and then I just had to not fall into that trap and make a very conscious decision not to do it ... I was like, okay, 'the cat's out of the bag. I'm fat,'" she said.
She's gotten a series of tattoos over the years
Barbie Ferreira has gotten a series of tattoos over the years to signify different experiences in her life. Her partner, Elle Puckett, gave Barbie her first tattoo during quarantine using a stick-and-poke kit, which was represented by a spiral on her butt. In an interview with Allure, Ferreira revealed what it was like to get her first tattoo from her partner. "[Doing tattoos] was a new thing for them, but now they're really good," she said of Puckett.
Additionally, Ferreira has a second tattoo, a series of lines near her breasts done by the artist, Pix. She shared the special meaning behind the design and location. "Well ... I really felt like I couldn't do anything [to my body] for so long. I couldn't even cut my hair one inch or I'd lose clients when I was a model. So I guess it does represent something — me taking over my own self."