JEFFREE STAR

'Jeffree Star' (born November 15, 1985^[1] as Jeffrey Steininger^[2]) is an American model, fashion designer^[3], make-up artist^[4] and singer-songwriter^[5][6] residing in the Los Angeles area. He is known for his popularity on MySpace ^[7] from his gender-bending appearance as a genderfuck cross-dresser^[8] who dubs himself "Queen of the Internet"^[9][10] and "Cunt: Queen of the Beautifuls".^[11][10]

Contents

Early life

Club scene

Make-up, modeling, and Internet fame

MySpace celebrity

Buzznet.com video-blogging

Music career

Discography

True Colors

Reality show development

References

See also

External links

Early life

Star was born in the Los Angeles area. Star stated that he discovered that he was gay in his early childhood. His father died in his childhood, so Star was left alone when his working model mom went on assignments. He began experimenting with his mother's makeup at a young age, leading to an obsessive compulsive interest, and convinced his mom to let him wear make-up to school when he was in junior high.

Club scene

Star's make-up artist career was started at age 15 as an underage gender-bending club kid wearing make-up, dying his hair in day-glo colors, and cross dressing leading to receiving large amounts of attention. Because he wore women's clothing, make-up and jewelry, he was popular in high school. Star reports that his obsessive compulsive disorder as a child pushed him into wearing his mother's makeup and clothes.^[13]
On weekends, Star recounts using a fake ID to attend Hollywood clubs dressed in mini dresses and nine inch high heels where celebrities would contract him for make-up work at their homes, or hiring Star as a model. He reports that his weekend partying at clubs and the make-up advice he gave laid the groundwork of his modeling career.

Make-up, modeling, and Internet fame

Jeffree Star's first cover photo on Los Angeles's Frontiers Newsmagazine, August 1, 2006

Star was referred to celebrities, leading to doing makeup for celebrities such as Kelly Osbourne, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, AFI frontman Davey Havok, and Jessicka from the band Scarling.^[14]
Star gained a cult following from posting outrageous photographs of himself on Internet forums and later MySpace, in which later admirers began to send him gifts such as a high end camera.
On August 1, 2006, Los Angeles's GLBT magazine ''Frontiers'' featured Star on its cover.
On November 17, 2006 Star and several contestants from America's Next Top Model were a part of Black Chandelier's Fall 2006 Runway Show at Salt Lake City's Union Pacific Depot. Star was also a guest on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 7.
On March 16, 2007, Star was one of the featured runway models for BOXeight's production of designer Jared Gold’s flamboyant ''Quiet Army show'' billed as "the wildest front row in all of Fashion Week" The show's 2007 theme was Mormon chic, effectively using the Los Angeles Theater as a backdrop during L.A. Fashion Week.^[15] He has appeared in several music videos including Good Charlotte's ''The River'' and Godhead's ''Push''. Most recently he appeared in the video for Aiden's "One Love".

MySpace celebrity

Jeffree Star used popular social networking website MySpace to further his music and fashion design careers as well as blog about his life while making social commentary on "self-image and confidence," fame, beauty and life. Using the nickname of "Cunt" and a "cyanide-laced wit in his online rants" to attract attention, Star had built up fan bases on several websites but convinced many to join him on MySpace, giving his MySpace profile a large number of "friends" from the beginning. His MySpace friend base has since grown to over 600,000 as of July 2007^[16] with each new photo shoot getting over 50,000 comments when posted, and by November 2006, he was recognized as MySpace's most connected profile personality.^[17]
Star has also gained fame as one of the most popular unsigned artists with the daily rankings placing him in the top tier on MySpace.

Buzznet.com video-blogging

On March 28, 2007 at Project Runway's Jeffrey Sebelia fashion show Star was a front row "celebutante" where he revealed details of Buzznet.com’s “Queen Needs a Princess Contest” which had "a day of femme-licious fun with Star" as the grand prize. The social-networking, music-news site specializes in new-media (integrated photoblog and videoblog capabilities) which Star has capitalized on to dovetail his modeling and music interests.^[18] Stars' social trendsetting participation at Buzznet and his success at growing online fan-base was noted in Buzznet's six million financing in May 2007.^[19] Star regularly uploads video-blog segments including music reviews, event reports as well as posting news about his upcoming music release.

Music career

Star's music career as an electronica and hip-hop vocalist began when he befriended Peaches' drummer who encouraged him to make music.
His first two tracks ''Straight Boys'' and ''We Want Cunt'', (named in tribute to his former screen name ''Cunt: Queen of the Beautifuls'') were co-written with Mötley Crüe's Samantha Maloney and singer Jessicka from Scarling.^[20] Star asked MySpace co-founder Tom to convert his MySpace profile into a music page so he could showcase his music.
On Nov 1, 2006 Star performed on the same bill as Los Angeles's Dirty Sanchez at the LA bar Key Club’s post-Halloween show.^[21] Star has toured with electro musician Peaches.^84[22]
On June 24 2007, Jeffree was banned from Toronto's Gay Pride Parade for punching a female fan in the face after spectators standing near her threw bottles onstage.^[23][24]

Discography

''Main article: Plastic Surgery Slumber Party (EP)
On March 13, 2007, Star released his first EP, ''Plastic Surgery Slumber Party''. Immediately, it debuted March 20, 2007 at No. 1 on iTunes’s dance charts^[25] and "has consistently topped the iTunes dance charts at #1, hovering high above household names such as Justin Timberlake and Cascada."^[26] Separately Star's MySpace page has an impressive 25 million listens off ''Plastic Surgery Slumber Party''.^[27]
Two songs recorded by Star that were not released on ''Plastic Surgery Slumber Party'' are "Louis Vuitton" and "Don't Cha (Sex Change Remix)", the latter of which featured Lady Pop Quiz and Diamond Girl. Star also recorded a song with Hollywood Undead in 2005 for their ''7 Song Sampler'', titled "Turn Off The Lights".

True Colors

During the summer of 2007, Star was advertised as a part of the True Colors Tour 2007,^[28] which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada.^[29] The tour, sponsored by the LGBT Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007 to coincide with Pride month.^[30] Profits from the tour benefited the Human Rights Campaign as well as PFLAG and The Matthew Shepard Foundation. Though he was advertised as a special guest to perform on several West Coast dates, Star did not appear.
Star's ''Plastic Surgery Slumber Party'' single will appear on the August 7, 2007 Tommy Boy release of Cyndi Lauper's ''True Colors'' tour compilation. Featuring ten tracks from ten of the artists the compilation will benefit the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that fights for civil rights for LGBT people.

Reality show development

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's World of Wonders Productions is
developing a reality show featuring Star^[31] and promise of "glamour and sexual tension." World of Wonders, who are also developing shows such as ''Allison Margolin: The Dopest Attorney in Town'', about an LA lawyer who specializes in medical-marijuana cases, and ''Beauty School Dropout'' featuring actor Jim J. Bullock's "second career as the would-be owner of a hair salon."

References

1. Jeffree Star
2. Jeffree Star Tickets
3. MySpace continues to expedite music careers
4. Queen of the Internet
5. Jeffree Star
6. World of Wonders touts reality trio: Jeffree Star, Jim J. Bullock topline new shows
7. Weiner, Jonah (April 11, 2006)."Tila Tequila for President". Slate.com. Retrieved July 29, 2006.
8. Jeffree Star: The Fairest One of All
9. and "CUNT: Queen of the Beautifuls". Jeffrey Star: Electro / Pop / Rap
10. The Future is Jeffree Star: Inside the cult-like following of the Internet's most popular queer icon
11. Jeffrey Star: Electro / Pop / Rap
12. The Future is Jeffree Star: Inside the cult-like following of the Internet's most popular queer icon
13. Jeffree Star's MySpace profile
14. Jeffree Star - Queen of the Beautifuls
15. L.A. Fashion Week Smackdown
16. Jeffree Star: Electro / Pop
17. Market News Publishing. (November 1, 2006) ''Kicks Off Retail Revolution.''
18. In the Kodak, in the Pink
19. Buzznet Lands Million Round of Financing Led By Redpoint Ventures and Anthem Venture Partners Same Venture Capital Firm That Pioneered MySpace Backs Leading Next Generation Social Media Company
20. The Future is Jeffree Star: Inside the cult-like following of the Internet's most popular queer icon
21. Dirty Sanchez: Local bands, man
22. Rock Picks For the week of December 14 – 21
23. Ryan Couldrey, ''Don't Eff with Jeffree Star'', BlogTO. June 24 2007. URL accessed June 30 2007.
24. Ryan Couldrey, ''Jeffree Star Covers Up'', BlogTO. June 29 2007 URL accessed June 30 2007.
25. Jeffree Star: The Fairest One of All
26. MySpace continues to expedite music careers
27. Jeffree Star: Electro / Pop
28. Britney to Join Cyndi Lauper's Tour for Surprise Show
29. True Colors: Special Guests
30. Cyndi Lauper Releases 'True Colors' Comp
31. Tuning In

See also

★ Androgyny

★ Buzznet

★ Celebutante

★ Famous for being famous

★ Genderfuck

★ Myspace

★ Queercore

★ Transgressive

★ Video on Trial, Star was a guest juror

★ Valley Village, Los Angeles, California

External links

★

★ Jeffree Star on Buzznet

★ Jeffree Star Store

★ Jeffree Star on PureVolume

★ Jeffree Star website

★ ''Fashion'' at the Open Directory Project

★ SWINDLE Magazine interview with Jeffree Star

★ Plastic Surgery Slumber Party on Rhapsody Online

★ Plastic Surgery Slumber Party on iTunes