Living Freely, Unapologetically, and Boldly with Julia Lester
By Lucy Ivey
Styling by Jules, Photography by Stow Kelly, Hair by Dylan Michael, Makeup by Jeni Chua
Meet Julia Lester, a 21-year-old actress born and raised in California. The yellow-loving- Wanda Vision obsessed girl has to be hands down one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. I had the opportunity to sit down with a fellow redhead and talk about her career.
The first thing I noticed about Julia when we hopped on our zoom call was her amazing sense of style. She was wearing a tie-dye band tee and an amazing assortment of layered necklaces. I told Julia about the first time I saw her face, which was in a youtube video posted by this Musical Theater Youtuber who Julia was doing a production of Carrie with. She laughed. Julia was currently in LA getting used to being able to do normal things again. We went on to talk about acting and she got started.
“I was dancing and singing before I could speak because I grew up in a family of performers and I just absolutely loved it and stuck with it,” stated Lester. For years, she was mainly doing musical theater but around 2009 she started doing on-screen work and fell in love with it. Being that musical theater and film and TV are so different that switch can be difficult. “I have learned a lot and I still have so much to learn. I don't know if at the time I knew that I was challenging myself with, breaking out of the musical theater, but looking back on it, I was having a hard time.” She goes onto say, “I've realized that onscreen acting is like my true passion, my true calling. Oh, that sounds so- you get it. You know what I mean? I definitely love both, but I grew up thinking I would do musical theater and then I ended up loving being, onscreen.”
High School Musical The Musical The Series takes place in Salt Lake City Utah at East High, where the original High School Musical movies were filmed. The show is told from the perspective of 7 theater kids who are all working through the challenges of theater and normal teenage drama like relationships, friendship conflict, and family troubles. Ashlyn, Julia’s character is a shy songwriter who is just starting to break out of her shell. When she gets cast as Ms. Darbus in the fall musical she is allowed to write a song for the show. She writes this killer ballad “Wondering” and stuns her classmates and most of all the cute redhead in the crew, “Big Red.”
Styling by Jules, Photography by Stow Kelly, Hair by Dylan Michael, Makeup by Jeni Chua
As we all know, the cast is an incredibly talented group. Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, Sofia Wylie, Matt Cornett, Larry Saperstein, Frankie Rodriguez, Joe Serafini, Dara Renee, have all been blowing up since way before the show even started. When asked what it was like to work with such a great cast and how she’s learned from her castmates, she had so much to say. “Oh my gosh. It's the greatest gift life could have ever given me. First of all, the show itself is so wonderful and stands for so many great things. And then to have a cast behind it that is as down to earth and talented and wonderful as they are is just so special. I've told them this before, but they've shaped the young adult that I am.” Obviously COVID19 affected the way that the film and television world operated. “It was strange. It was very different, especially because we're such an affectionate cast and we love our crew too. We're all such huggers and so it was definitely different and there was a lot of adapting to do, but everybody was so brave and worked so hard during it all and made it still really fun.”
As a viewer, I resonated with Ashlyn. I’ve also spent most of my life doing theater and in my freshman year, I started to struggle a lot more with my anxiety. The acting was my outlet. Seeing that it was Ashlyn’s too made me feel seen. In season 2, she has this line that struck me. She says “I know who I am. I'm proud of who I am. I've seen beauty and the beast 100 times and Belle has a certain look, it's iconic and that look isn't me. And sometimes that feels complicated.” When I asked Julia if that’s ever been something she’s felt, she says “Yeah. Absolutely. I have, have felt that in a lot of moments in my life, and um I don't know. I think, I think that something cool that people can take away from the story is, is, you know, seeing Ashlyn's growth throughout the season is going to be cool. I think it's a relevant thing that Ashlyn is going through and something that I went through and I think it's cool that we get to look at the story from another perspective.” She goes on to talk about Ms. Jen’s role in Ashlyn’s character growth. “I wish I had somebody like Ms. Jen, to be there for me during those moments.”
Julia and I go on to talk about social media. “ I think that there are not enough people who are so open and accepting in this world and the theater community and everything. I just have to say that it is so so so beautiful to see that you are just so supportive and you love everyone who watches the show.” I said. Julia smiled. “That's the way it should be I appreciate it thank you. This is my first time really on social media and it’s a new world and I would hope that I am coming across that way so thank you I appreciate it,” she says.
HSMTMTS has got to be one of the most representative shows I’ve seen in a while. With a cast full of different identities, sizes, and ages it truly feels like the showrunner, Tim Federle took every bit of our generation and poured it into the show. It was wonderful to see. The show taps into everyday issues that teens are struggling with all the time. Olivia’s character Nini struggles with finding herself and her worth, Ashlyn struggles with confidence, Seb and Carlos both are navigating being their first relationship, and EJ is struggling with pride and letting go of his ego. These are all things that we go through. This show makes everyone feel seen.
I go on to ask her why she thinks that representation of all identities and feelings and people is important to her. She talks about the lack of representation of gay couples in the film and TV when we were going up. Sure, we saw Britney and Santana and glee or just other characters but we didn’t see enough. There wasn’t a representation of everyone. Nobody that was pansexual or gender non-conforming or non-binary. And yes we’re seeing more of that which is great. “I think it’s amazing. I think it speaks as you said to our generation. Our generation is filled with The fiercest badass people ever. I think it’s our only duty in our right to portray that in our everyday lives. It’s so important that we are outspoken and bold with who we are. It’s what we’re meant to do. So the opportunity that we get to portray that on the screen and had the opportunity to portray that in real life is one that I will take up any chance I can get. I love our generation and if I can be A voice for them in any capacity that’s the coolest thing ever.“
As a very outspoken member of the LGBTQ community, Julia tells me what it means to her to be proud. “Living unapologetically, living freely and boldly and in the loudest most you way possible.”
Talking to Julia was truly one of the most genuine experiences I’ve had. She is so down-to-earth and funny and truly cares. I'm obsessed with her and all of her current endeavors and I cannot wait to see what’s next.
