Hari Nef

I want to start the trans mafia one day.

I think people get stuck in a cycle with social media sometimes and don't know how to make adjustments that are personal.

There have been moments where I've had to question the way I've used social media and change it. Not because anything was wrong or right but because my needs had changed, and my perspective had changed.

I think it's an oversimplification of somebody's worth to 'cancel' them. We're so quick to cancel but also so quick to lift somebody up as 'the queen,' 'the mom,' 'the dad,' 'the god.'

I liked playing video games because I felt like I was inside of the story in a way that I didn't feel when I was just watching something. Any chance I could get to step into the shoes of another person, I would take. I couldn't get enough of stories.

I think the skin is the most important part of a strong makeup look, and if you take care of that, the rest will follow.

I like to let my skin breathe, I don't like to stress it out. I don't like to put it through very much.

I get a facial maybe a couple of times a year.

Brands like RMS Beauty and Kat Burki are my skincare heroes.

There are no trans roles, and if there are, they go to Jared Leto or Eddie Redmayne or Elle Fanning... Will there ever come a point where I could play a woman in a realistic, naturalistic drama and have there not be the word 'trans' in the script?

I could have hidden in Boston and lived at home for three years, gone through my transition, taken voice lessons to make my voice more feminine, gotten gender reassignment surgery, and spent time to complete my transition, but I didn't want to wait. I wanted to be in the world.

When I saw that Laverne Cox was on the cover of 'Time' magazine, I totally lost it. It was a coup for the girls!

Trans folks are going to rise up for their moments and their money!

I'm really into the way sound works in film, and I did a little bit of sound design for theater in college.

I'm teaching myself how to screenplay write.

To see a trans body in this ideal space - on a cover, in an ad - these are spaces that have immense cultural power to dictate what is beautiful, what is glamorous, what is aspirational, what is sexy, what is clean. That can be very powerful and helpful in the de-stigmatization of trans bodies.

I feel like the most fascinating parts of a trans life take place after the decision to transition. They take place when you're in this new body, in this new life, and you start realizing things.

I feel like my transition, in a broader sense, began the second I left home and came to New York. Because all of a sudden, I opened myself up to options about how to be.

I prefer men who are queer. Not gay men, but queer men - guys with an open mind. Bisexual men, because they're able to understand the different elements of the body without judging that I don't conform to a certain ideal.

If my body can fall into the background for just a second, maybe people will start listening to what I have to say.