HBO’s dark teen drama Euphoria was one of the biggest TV hits of the year, fusing shocking tales of drug addiction and sexual abuse with unflinching realism about the Gen Z world it portrayed. Its central characters were brought to life by the former Disney star Zendaya and the transgender model, actor and activist Hunter Schafer, who drew acclaim for her first screen role. Of her beguiling character Jules, the 19-year-old has said that she was unlike anyone else she had ever seen on TV, and that “[she] spoke to me as a queer trans woman”.

Unsurprisingly, the character resonated with the trans community, too, among them Noa Levine, a 13-year-old from Los Angeles. Last month, a video of Levine crying during an emotional videocall with Schafer went viral. Here, she shares her story:

I was at a Thai restaurant in LA, near where I live, when I spotted Zendaya. I didn’t want to bother her, but when I left the restaurant, I started crying because I realised this might be my only chance to meet Hunter. I really regretted it, so I rushed back in, said hi … and Zendaya ended up calling her!

Hunter is like a superhero to me. Watching her in Euphoria is the reason I’m so confident and happy in my life. When I saw her on screen, I saw someone who looked like me, and who was doing everything that every other teenager was doing. It was so powerful: all I’ve always wanted to do is to be normal. Trans characters are represented very poorly in a lot of other TV shows. They make it seem as if it’s bad to be trans, or that you’re an outsider, but I’m just a normal girl, happy in her body, living her life like every other girl my age.

When I spoke to Hunter, I wasn’t even really talking – I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I said: “I must be dreaming.” I remember telling her she was my biggest role model. When I got home, I put the video on Instagram – from there, someone shared it on Twitter and it was watched hundreds of thousands of times. I only found out when my post started getting loads of likes and someone DM’d me to say they had seen me on Twitter. When I saw how many people had watched it, I was like: “That’s insane!” I watched the video again when I was crying and it made me sob even more.

so zendaya facetimed hunter because the girl is trans and said hunter was an inspiration to her through euphoria and zendaya wanted to connect the 2 of them so she could tell hunter herself🥺 MY HEART pic.twitter.com/94WeUb49ha — NABRINA ENDGAME (@spideyscheIIe) November 16, 2019

The story has really touched people, because it shows the magic in the world and the importance of representation. I hope to meet Hunter in person one day – there’s so much I want to say to her. First, though, I would thank her for being like an older sister, in a way. She’s been there to guide me through it.