#Me and my sister have been lifelong Barbie fans

[leafatlaw]

see my main problem with the Barbie (2023) movie is that it’s a little bit too, lacking, in imagination. Barbie to me has always been about outlandish drama and high concept storylines made up by kids with diy-ed Barbie’s and secondhand dreamhouses. My childhood was filled with exclusively “weird barbies” with badly cut hair and dollar store outfits. What I’m trying to say is that at its roots, Barbie is weird. If like how stereotypical Barbie changed by the power of those playing with her, then every Barbie in barblieland should be a whole lot weirder. There should be a shit ton of princess Barbies, dozens of fairy Barbie’s and a lot of Barbie’s with soap opera like dramas. Because that’s how people play with barbie, that’s who barbie is. And quite frankly there should be alot more Barbie’s who are mothers and wives, because that is primarily how I played with Barbie.

And don’t get me wrong, I know why none of this was included in the movie. Because Mattel and maybe even the writers don’t want to include the idea that Barbie is not always this amazing feminist ideal. And it isn’t. Barbie may have been the first girl toy that was not a baby but Barbie isn’t the reason we have these ideas of feminism. It’s because of how people played with Barbie. And I saw none of those people reflected in that film.

#Sorry I wya her the Barbie movie again and this was the result #Okay to put it plainly #Me and my sister have been lifelong Barbie fans #Grew up playing it with our cousins and and friends #we had dvds of most of the movies and watched Barbie life in the dream house long after we were the target audience #What I’m trying to say is: we walked inking that movie expecting to see soemthing of all of that reflected back #And we got nothing #I don’t know how the writers and director played with Barbie but our experiences were so widely different it’s unrecognizable #sparrow speaks #Sparrows soliloquy #barbie movie #barbie 2023 #that’s it #Mattel fight me #Augh it makes me so #Talk to me about it please #Also I hate this might delete l8r

[thecastingcircle]

The animated series adaptation of “The Supernatural Academy” books by Jaymin Eve has been ordered at Peacock, Variety has learned exclusively.

Variety originally reported the series was in the works from 41 Entertainment back in October 2019. The half-hour series will debut on Peacock on Jan. 20, 2022. The first season will consist of 16 episodes.

Like the books, the show chronicles an otherworldly adventure of sisters marked at birth. One twin sister was raised in the Supernatural world, confident and popular. The other was raised in the human world, an offbeat outsider. Now they’re about to be reunited at the Supernatural Academy, and neither one of them is thrilled about it. These adversarial twins will have to learn to get over their differences and trust each other in order to save themselves and save the world.

“It is so incredible to see my original story come to life in this high-quality animation project,” said Eve. “I am so grateful to both Peacock and 41 Entertainment for believing in me and I am sure that all of the fans of the books are anxiously marking January 20th on their diaries.”

Gillian Horvath serves as writer on the adaptation, having developed it for the screen. Allen Bohbot serves as executive producer, with Steve Ball serving as series director. Jody Prouse is the animation director. 41 Entertainment produces with ICON Creative Studio providing animation services. John Majkut composed the original theme songs.

The full voice cast of the show is as follows:

LARISSA DIAS (Supernatural, Falling Skies, Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart) as “Jessa Lebron.” Jessa is a popular Wolf Shifter in her junior year at the Supernatural Academy. She has everything a girl could ever ask for including a supportive father and four best friends with their own unique supernatural skills.

GIGI SAUL GUERRERO (Marvel Super Hero Adventures, Into the Dark: Culture Shock, Super Monsters, Nina’s World) as “Mischa Jackson/Lebron.” Raised by a single mom with a tendency to move from place to place, Mischa has never fit in anywhere. The timid, creative and sweet natured girl transforms after realizing her mother has hidden who she truly is for sixteen years.

VINCENT TONG (Ninjago, Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild, The Dragon Prince) as “Maximus.” Max is a natural leader as proven through his watchful eye on his younger brother Braxton.

CARDI WONG (Are you Afraid of the Dark?, Supergirl) as “Braxton.” Brax is the lovable, goofy and smooth talker of the group.

SHANNON CHAN-KENT (You, Woke, Good Trouble, Life Sentence) as “Elda Kristov.” Elda is the daughter of the Headmaster of the Supernatural Academy and sees Jessa as her main rival for Queen Bee status.

BETHANY BROWN (Charmed, The 100) as “Terra.” Terra is Jessa’s lifelong bestie. Terra’s unique power of sorcery perfectly rounds out the group’s supernatural abilities.

BRIAN DRUMMOND (Mega Man: Fully Charged, The Willoughbys) as “Headmaster Kristov.” Kristov proves himself to be manipulative, villainy, and self-righteous as he plots against the Lebron twins from the moment they are reunited.

BARBARA KOTTMEIER (Supernatural, Motive, Falling for Vermont) as “Lienda Jackson/Lebron.” Lienda is the true definition of a Mother. She is a strong woman who has sacrificed her supernatural ability and a life with one of her twin daughters, solely to protect her family.

ALESSANDRO JULIANI (Battlestar Galactica, The Magicians, Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, The 100) as “Jonathon Lebron.” As head of the World Council and the Alpha Wolf of the Lebron pack, Jonathon not only has a civic duty but a paternal instinct to save the realms and his daughters.

ALI J EISNER (Fraggle Rock, Gisele’s Big Backyard) as “Jae.” A Faerie whose music has the literal charm to soothe savage beasts and create new life.

DIANA KAARINA (The Hollow, Barbie, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake) as “Santra.” As the new history teacher at Supernatural Academy, Santra is the intelligent, compassionate, and confident guide that students can rely on.

KATHLEEN BARR (Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Johnny Test) as “Yufon.” Yufon is a powerful and stern member of the World Council.

#supernatural academy

[forlorned]

finally i’m getting ‘round to barbie’s bio!! she’s a charming native that loves this town more than she hates it, but only by a small margin. she’s the secretary to the mayor, but her father was a disciple so she’s... neutral on the club. wolves, tho? gross. her mom is also a little infamous around town for partying too much, even into her fifties, sort of like lorelai from gilmore girls if she was chaotic and a former biker groupie. anyways, here’s her details:

content warnings: death, implied bipolar disorder

born october 20th, 1988 in charming, california. her mother, also named barbara goodwin, was new to the town when she met ty. she didn’t plan on staying long, accepting a temporary job to fill in as a substitute teacher that was on maternity leave, but it was love at first sight for the two of them. she didn’t know he was a biker until two weeks into their relationship, a fact that ty kept from her. she was only twenty three when she moved to charming, ty a bit older, but she decided to forgive him for lying. by that time, she was madly in love with him... or at least she thought so. the relationship didn’t last as long as her pregnancy. they were constantly on and off, fighting daily, and when barbie was born, barb decided ty would have nothing to do with his daughter. (that didn’t last very long.)

barbie grew up with her father wandering in and out of her life, sometimes living with her and her mom, sometimes not seeing him for months, depending on what was going on with the club at any particular time. it was mostly just her and her mother, and barb only being in her mid 20s when barbie was born, quickly felt like she was losing her youth. she would party regularly, leaving barbie with the elderly neighbor, usually at the clubhouse when she liked ty and la luna’s when she didn’t. for the most part, it was just barb and little barb (as she was known the devil’s disciples and most locals), and they grew up more like sisters than mother and daughter. her mother was her best friend, except when she wasn’t.

barbie was only thirteen when her father died, though it had been a good year since the last time she saw him, during a time when relations between the devil’s disciples and wicked wolves were especially violent. dying in a violent shootout, the president at the time told her that he died whispering barbie’s name, but she finds that hard to believe. of course she was devastated that her father had died, but it felt more like the death of an uncle or distant cousin than one half of the couple that brought her to life.

things were a little different after her father’s death. her mother was still a part-time party girl, relying on her daughter as her only confidant, but she got a little more paranoid. she wasn’t worried about the club, or the gang, so much, it was just the world in general. one moment, big barb was carefree, the next she was obsessively checking the windows were still locked. barbie never grew up with a very rosy view of the disciple’s, but it was confusing how her mother could go from loving them deeply to hating them even more over the course of a day. it wasn’t an easy time to live in charming, but barbie grew to fear everyone, not just gang violence.

it was only a few short years before she got to high school after her dad died, and barbie mostly kept to herself. she was embarrassed over her mother’s public antics, scared of being hurt, and was one of the few black girls in school; all a recipe for an introverted, shy teenager. though she had loose ties to the disciples through her father, she was a chronic good girl, and that carried throughout her college years. she saw what alcohol did to her mother, knew how her father died, she wanted to stay as far away from the seedy underbelly of charming as she possibly could.

not too far, though. she stayed at home during her college education, commuting to fresno for school. desperately she wanted to leave charming, but she feared what would happen to her mother if no one was around to rein her in. completing a bachelor’s degree in communications at fresno pacific university, a major she chose simply because it could lead to many different careers, she found herself unemployed back in her mother’s house after graduation.

barbie landed in the mayor’s office by accident—not literally, but she was searching job listings in the fresno/charming area and came across one for a file clerk at the charming mayor’s office. hired after one interview, she really only intended to be there until she found something better, but slowly she started getting promoted until she was finally in the actual office. working as the mayor’s secretary for the past five years, barbie is incredibly content with her job. for now, at least, she’s absolutely fine where she is. (secretly, she hopes to be the mayor one day. not now, but maybe one day.)

before she had a vaguely cordial relationship with the disciples, and disapproved of the wolves, but since working in the mayor’s office, she’s grown to heavily dislike both. she wants charming to be a nice place to live, but it wasn’t ever that nice to begin with, was it? as far as either crew or gang knows, she’s neutral.

has a very bubbly personality, but it’s mostly just a front. she feels like she can never be angry because her mother relied on her so much as a child and it’s carried over into adulthood. also has major trust issues because of her relationship with her parents, grew up thinking that anyone that was talking to her just wanted something from her. doesn’t have a lot of friends, or at least she doesn’t have a lot of close friends. mostly hangs out with coworkers or fellow i-don’t-want-to-talk-about-my-trauma-ever-so-let’s-talk-about-real-housewives-of-nyc people.

moved into her own apartment, but frequently goes to her mother’s house to check on her/have dinner. and by frequently i mean like six times a week. doesn’t drink more than a glass of wine if she is going to drink, so most people think she’s really boring (she kinda is lol, but we love her).

you either know her as barbie or little barb, never just barb (please call me barbie, barb is my mom’s name. yes she named me after herself.) or barbara. sometimes will answer to babs.

kiiiiind of judgmental, oops. doesn’t think crew or gang members are inherently bad people but it’s more like ooh no baby what is you doing.jpg sort of thing. distrusting but incredibly lonely, whomp whomp. a big fan of passive aggressive smiles. kinda... fake, but in like an innocent way.

wanted stuffs:

childhood friends: barbie grew up in charming, so if ur muse is a lifelong local, they probably know barbie! she’s very shy but super nice, kinda kept to herself growing up, but very ride-or-die until you do something she thinks is Wrong and Amoral.

a best friend: c’mon. this girl needs a bestie, a least one person for her to feel close to and share her real emotions with. except a lot of stopping by ur place of work to go out to lunch and random gifts because Gifts Are Her Love Language.

exes: though barbie is super like... not forthcoming with her emotions, she’s very bubbly and like come the fuck on, she’s a smoke show. i’m imagining someone that really liked her but found her forced cheery attitude annoying and she refused to meaningfully commit because she was scared of the feelings.

childhood enemy: someone that didn’t like barbie growing up, for any reason (except racism obviously lmao). they could’ve been a fellow club brat or maybe they just thought she was weak bc she was so quiet and shy when they were kids. who knows! i just like antagonistic relationships!

a roommate: she moved out of her mom’s house years ago and has a good government job but she still needs help to pay the rent!! ideally they could be really good friends or maybe they were strangers that have to learn to live together and they’re constantly getting annoyed with each other for like, leaving the bathroom fan on or something. i figure this connection would be with another woman, but it doesn’t have to be!

a surrogate little sister (or bro, or sibling): barbie grew up an only child, but she’s got lots of Big Sister Energy. i’m thinking this will be a connection for someone younger that’s in need of some sisterly guidance, or perhaps a fellow club brat that’s more integrated into the crew/grew up to join and barbie’s like i don’t approve of your choices but i’m here 4 u.

um honestly i could go on forever but i don’t want this to be super long, so message me on here or discord (wanda’s loving boy#1003) if you want to plot!! :)

#charming.intro #hold your horses honey. i've got coupons for the pringles. ( ooc. ) #i only proofread this once bc i woke up from a nap but love barbie or perish :)

[lalka-laski]

Another Day, Another Dollar (and a survey to pass the time)

Coffee mugs, teacups, or water bottles? I collect kitschy mugs, most of which were souvenirs or gifts (for example, my sister’s boyfriend got me a mug with the ENTIRE script of Shrek printed on it. Amazing lol!). But I also love pretty teacups and I have several scattered around my apartment as decor. I even have this BEAUTIFUL tea set, hand-made and painted in Poland, that I’ve been meaning to display.  Bubblegum or cotton candy? If we’re talking flavoring, then NEITHER! The idea alone of bubblegum or cotton-candy flavored shit makes me gag.  How did your elementary school teachers describe you? I was quiet and not very social, but an exceptional student. I spent most of my free time reading books or writing my own stories. Pretty much an elementary teacher’s dream student!

Do you prefer to drink soda from cans, bottles or cups? My top choice across the board would be a cup with a straw. But I LOVE regular Coca-Cola from a can. It tastes so much better than Coke from a bottle or fountain machine for some reason. It’s sweeter and smoother with less of that painful carbonated burn.  Earbuds or headphones? Earbuds, just because headphones make me look like a dork. 

Movies or TV? TV shows are easier to fade in and out of, which is my preferred means of watching something.  Favorite smell in the summer? SUNSCREEN! It’s such a distinct and familiar smell that’s contained to only a teeny sliver of the year. I love smells like that.  Game you were best at in P.E./gym? It’s not a game but I was weirdly good at rock-climbing when we did that unit in high school?  What do you have for breakfast on an average day? Nothing. I love breakfast food, just not at breakfast time.  Name of your favorite playlist? I have this one playlist whose title is simply the sparkle/star emoji (creative, I know). It’s a lot of vibey, atmospheric jams that are the perfect soundtrack when I have people over just chilling and drinking.  Lanyard or key ring? Keyring, but a lanyard might make my life easier.  Favorite non-chocolate candy? Sourpatch Kids or any other type of sour gummy.  Favorite book you had to read for school? Dude. I was an English nerd who later became an English major and at one point in the semester was averaging 2 novels a week. I could never pick a sole favorite from all my years in school and I’d struggle to even pick a favorite from each class. But for the sake of this question I’m gonna rattle off a few that come to mind. From middle school through high school I loved The Outsiders, The Westing Game, TKAM, anything by Steinbeck, Jane Eyre, The Poisonwood Bible, The Virgin Suicides. 

AAAAAND I just started mentally listing my favorite books from college but got too overwhelmed. So I’m moving on to the next question now, thx!

Most comfortable position to sit in? Uh, I’ve never put much thought into that. 

Most frequently worn pair of shoes? It depends on the season. And to be honest, I’d rather go barefoot whenever possible.  Ideal weather? A little cool but sunny. I do love the rain but it hinders plans (and hair & makeup!) so I lean more towards sunny, dry days.  Pencils or pens? PENS ONLY. Pencils gross me out.  Obsession from childhood? Most of my childhood obsessions have carried over into adulthood: whimsical fairy tales and princesses (specifically Sleeping Beauty), the color pink, collecting diaries & journals...  Favorite crystal? Rose quartz, if that counts?  Favorite activity to do in warm weather? Swimming or laying by the pool/under a tree with a good book. And of course, I love me some day drinking on a summer day! Favorite activity to do in cold weather? Staying cozy inside, also with a good book and a good drink. See a theme here?  Five songs to describe you? Thursday’s Child- David Bowie She Talks to Angels- The Black Crowes Paradise- Coldplay Never Get You Right- Brandon Flowers Silver Lining- David Gray

Best way for someone to bond with you? Music and literature are my favorite ways to connect with a person. There’s nothing more intimate (and I mean that both in a romantic and platonic sense) than listening to a song or reading a poem/passage with someone and then discussing what it means to you.  Top 5 favorite Vines? I have many! “Road work ahead” is of course a fave. And there are so many more that I can’t think of right now.  Ads you have stuck in your head? None atm

Average time you fall asleep? Depends entirely on the night  What is the first meme you remember seeing? Yikes, I can’t remember. I’m sure it involved a cat?  Suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack? Suitcase with wheels  Lemonade or tea? Lemonade is my favorite non-alcoholic drink ever. I even named my childhood teddy bear “Lemonade.”  Last person you texted? Glenn  Jacket pockets or pants pockets? Jacket pockets, I never carry things in pants pockets. Favorite type of jacket? Jackets are my favorite item of clothing, so I’m a hoarder of cute jackets, blazers & coats!  Favorite scent for soap? Lavender & cedarwood from Bath & Body Works.  Sci-fi, fantasy, or superheroes? I don’t care much for either.  What clothes do you sleep in? Usually just a comfy tee shirt  Favorite type of cheese? Extra extra sharp cheddar (preferably white). So sharp it makes your jaw tingle!  What saying or quote do you live by? I’m trying to ask myself lately “What can I learn from this?” or “What can this offer me?”  What are you currently stressed about? For the most part, I’m in a good place. I feel aligned and centered and a HELL of a lot better than I’ve ever felt. My biggest struggles currently are related to body image, envy & self-worth, which is a lifelong battle for most, no?  Favorite font? Cabria or something like that?  What did you learn from your first job? Speaking up for yourself is difficult but it’s one of life’s necessary evils  Favorite fairy tale? Sleeping Beauty, of course! It’s an obsession.  Favorite tradition? That’s a difficult question because I’m SUPER sentimental and I have tons of personal & family traditions.  Talent you’re proud of having? Empathy

If you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? "Stop it!” exclaimed in disbelief or surprise.  If you were an anime character, what genre of anime would it be? I have no clue Character you relate to? Elle Woods (on my best days).  Favorite website from your childhood? I loved gurl.com and Alloy. I just checked to see if either still exist.... gurl now links to Seventeen (another favorite in my teen years) and Alloy links to Youtube? Odd.  Any scars? A very faint one. Actually it may not even be there anymore.  Favorite flower? Chrysanthemum  Any good luck charms? Like I said, I’m a very sentimental person. So I have several!  Least favorite flavor of food or drink? Well a question from earlier in the survey reminded me how much I ABHOR bubblegum or cotton candy flavored things. I’m also very picky about lemon. I love lemonade or lemon candies, but can’t stand the flavor in desserts or savory  dishes. So maybe I just like artificial lemon flavor?  Left or right handed? I’m right handed but always wished I was left-handed just because I thought it was cool.  Least favorite pattern? None come to mind immediately  Worst subject in school? Math of any sort. Chemistry was also wicked hard for me.  Favorite weird flavor combo? I don’t think anything I eat is that weird or abnormal  When did you lose your first tooth? No clue Favorite potato food? Hashbrown patties or curly fries. Not a huge fan of regular french fries, although that doesn’t stop me from eating them whenever the opportunity presents itself...  Gas station coffee or grocery store sushi? Weird options. But I don’t eat sushi and I actually love gas station coffee so there’s a clear winner here. 

Earth tones or jewel tones? Jewel tones Do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs? Fireflies

PC or console gaming? I don’t game

Writing or drawing? Writing Podcasts or talk radio? Podcast, I suppose. But I rarely find podcasts I enjoy. Most of the time it just seems like a person who likes the sound of their own voice rambling, or two or more people having a conversation that doesn’t need an audience.  Barbie or Polly Pocket? Barbie but Polly Pocket was still that bitch

Fairy tales or mythology? I’m partial to fairy tales but that doesn’t mean I find mythology any less fascinating. 

Cookies or cupcakes? Cookies all day Your greatest fear? Death or losing a loved one Your greatest wish? To find inner peace and happiness, to live a long life with my loved ones Who would you put before everyone else? My loved ones^ Wow I’ve used that phrases a lot in these past few questions.  Lamps, overhead lights, fairy lights, or sunlight? Fairy lights!!  Nicknames? Lil Bit/Libit, Lala, Enebis, Lala, Liz, Lizzie, Ela.  The name “Elizabeth” lends itself to a hell of a lot of nicknames haha!  Favorite season? Fall, probably. But I’ve grown to love Spring too as I’ve gotten older. Which is weird because it was always my least favorite growing up. I used to find it depressing but now I think it’s inspiring.  Favorite app on your phone? Snapchat probably  What is your desktop background? I’m on a work computer right now so it’s just our company logo How many phone numbers do you have memorized? Uhh.... very few.

[biofunmy]

Jonathan Van Ness of ‘Queer Eye’ Comes Out

Jonathan Van Ness was having a late breakfast at the Empire Diner, around the corner from his one-bedroom apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Seated in a window booth, he was serving what he calls his “16th-century Jesus” look: Hollywood-starlet tresses, a mustache à la a Super Mario villain and fingernails painted with cartoon depictions from the 1996 film “The First Wives Club.”

But Mr. Van Ness was not feeling his normal gorgeous self, the boisterous “Yass queen” merman that fans of “Queer Eye” adore. He was hung over.

And no, it wasn’t from partying too much. It was a “vulnerability hangover,” to use a term coined by Brené Brown, a TED Talk-famous researcher, to describe feelings of dread after being forthcoming.

“I’ve had nightmares every night for the past three months because I’m scared to be this vulnerable with people,” Mr. Van Ness said.

For much of the summer, Mr. Van Ness, 32, has been mentally preparing himself for the release of his piercing memoir, “Over the Top,” on Sept. 24, in which a different image of Mr. Van Ness unspools with remarkable transparency.

Subtitled a “Raw Journey to Self-Love,” the book doesn’t so much explode as offer psychological insight into the hirsute gay fairy godmother in heels or, as he puts it, “the effervescent, gregarious majestic center-part-blow-dry cotton-candy figure-skating queen” that he portrays on “Queer Eye.”

“It’s hard for me to be as open as I want to be when there are certain things I haven’t shared publicly,” he said. He cracked his knuckles as he fidgeted from nerves. “These are issues that need to be talked about.”

He ordered another cup of coffee, his fifth of the day, and began tearing up as he spoke about a particularly painful memory, one of many that he divulges in his book. When he was much younger, he was abused by an older boy from church, during what was supposed to be a make-believe play session.

“For a lot of people who are survivors of sexual assault at a young age, we have a lot of compounded trauma,” he said.

Suddenly, a 20-something woman with a ponytail appeared at the table. “I’m so sorry, I can’t take a picture right now,” he said, discreetly wiping his eyes.

“Oh, that’s fine. I just want to say that I love the show,” she said.

“Thank you. Namaste. Have a nice day,” he said, clasping his hands in prayer.

Mr. Van Ness exhaled and gently took a sip of coffee. “If you’re having a terrible moment or in the middle of a conversation about something serious, people don’t care,” he said. “They want their bubbly J.V.N. and to get that major selfie.”

Sex, Drugs and Hair

In a sense, the memoir was a way for Mr. Van Ness to tell his story without interruption. There are certainly moments that may make some readers pause.

Mr. Van Ness grew up in Quincy, Ill., a small port city along the Mississippi River, where he was a self-described “little baby queen” unafraid to embrace his femininity. It helped to have a mostly supportive family, including a mother he considers a lifelong best friend.

The Van Ness family owns Quincy Media, a media company that operates 16 televisions stations in Illinois, Wisconsin and elsewhere, as well as two local newspapers. His mother, Mary Winters, is the company’s vice president; his father, Jon Van Ness, worked in sales. (They divorced when he was 5, and his mother remarried four years later.)

At Quincy Senior High School (which he visits in the latest season of “Queer Eye”), he leapt over social norms to become the school’s first male cheerleader. Never mind the beer bottles thrown at him during games.

He wasn’t exactly popular, and students spread rumors about his friendship with a closeted boy from his swim class. Mr. Van Ness felt humiliated. “I was too fat, too femme, too loud and too unlovable,” he said.

His lack of self-esteem ran deep. As therapy would later reveal, the abuse he experienced as a young child planted the seed for other self-destructive behaviors. In his early teens, he spent hours in AOL chat rooms (this was the 1990s) and met up with older men for sex. One man, he recounts in the book, “turned whiter than Ann Coulter’s fan base” after learning he was underage.

He found other ways to fill the void, including binge eating junk food like doughnuts when his stepfather died (he gained 70 pounds in three months).

Eager to leave Quincy, he earned extra credit to skip senior year and attended the University of Arizona in Tucson. But during his first semester, he blew a monthly allowance of $200 from his mother on cocaine, which he started doing on weekends.

Instead of asking his mother for more money (he was too ashamed and reckless at the time), he advertised sex for money on Gay.com, a chat and personals site.

He flunked out of college his first year — he was 19 — and sulked home with his ponytail between his legs.

Unsure what to do with his life, he decided to take the skills honed from styling the hair of his Barbie dolls to the next level and enrolled in an 11-month beautician program at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis, where his first clients included many Somali refugees.

After getting his certificate, he moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. (to be near his dying grandmother) and then to Los Angeles, where he supported himself as an assistant at a Sally Hershberger salon.

But his addiction to sex and drugs got worse. When he was in his early 20s, a couple he met on Grindr introduced him to smoking methamphetamine. He went to rehab twice and relapsed both times.

One day, when he was 25, he fainted in a salon while highlighting a client’s hair. The next day he went to Planned Parenthood to diagnose his flulike symptoms. He tested positive for H.I.V.

“That day was just as devastating as you would think it would be,” he writes.

His Own Makeover

He cleaned up his act; he still drinks and smokes marijuana but says he hasn’t done hard drugs in years. And, using money from a family trust, he started anew in Los Angeles.

Appropriately enough, his foray into entertainment began at the hair salon. During an appointment with his friend Erin Gibson, a comedian who worked for Funny or Die, the two came up with a parody series called “Gay of Thrones,” in which Mr. Van Ness and a guest comedian offer campy, gay-themed recaps of “Game of Thrones.”

The show premiered in 2013 and became a hit. (It has been nominated for three Creative Arts Emmys for short-form variety series). Soon, Mr. Van Ness was offered roles as a red-carpet commentator and as a host of other web series.

Then, in 2016, his manager called with news that would truly flip his hair: Netflix was holding auditions for a reboot of “Queer Eye.” It took many weeks, but Mr. Van Ness eventually won the producers over.

In the show’s four seasons, the “Queer Eye” cast has gone from fringe gay personalities to mainstream celebrities, with Mr. Van Ness as one of the series’s breakout stars.

In a recent episode set in Kansas City, Mo., he confronts the shame associated with traction alopecia, a form of hair loss that predominantly affects black women. It’s a topic rarely discussed on television, and even rarer by someone who is white.

On Twitter, Tressie McMillan Cottom, an author and professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, wrote: “Jonathan treating this sister with traction alopecia with love is more care than I can recall a regular black woman getting on TV ever.” (When he was shown that tweet, he burst into tears.)

Mr. Van Ness hopes to bring attention to what he calls “gorgeous beauty moments” like that with his memoir, especially misperceptions about being H.I.V. positive. He is healthy and now describes himself as an out-and-proud “member of the beautiful H.I.V.-positive community.”

“When ‘Queer Eye’ came out, it was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?,” he said. “And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can do to have the stigmatization of the L.G.B.T. community thrive around me.’” He paused before adding, “I do feel the need to talk about this.”

Just as he was about to take a bite of his eggs at the diner, Mr. Van Ness was interrupted once again. This time it was a boyish young man who poked his head in the window to profess his admiration.

After another “namaste,” which appears to be his shorthand for “kindly leave,” Mr. Van Ness resumed his thoughts. “These are all difficult subjects to talk about on a makeover show about hair and makeup,” he said. “That doesn’t mean ‘Queer Eye’ is less valid, but I want people to realize you’re never too broken to be fixed.”

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