Michaela Edenfield’s makeup is her competitive advantage

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — “If you know the time, you know the vibe,” Florida State softball catcher Michaela Edenfield tells her nearly 126,000 TikTok followers at the start of her game day videos. “It’s time to do some razzle dazzle on my eyes.”

This is Edenfield’s cue to fans that she’s about to bring her creative vision to life. With makeup as her medium, she is an artist at work, recording and sharing “get ready with me” videos that have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views and more than 4 million likes.

Edenfield uses palettes of candy-colored eyeshadows, small pots of face paint, tubes of liquid glitter, and occasionally, some rhinestones, to deliver dramatic looks fit for the stage.

Or in her case, the field.

“It’s the mental preparation behind closed doors,” she explained, “and every high-level athlete has their own way of finding that.”

The 6-foot-1 redshirt senior is FSU’s starting catcher and a key contributor at-bat, sitting third in the program’s career home run standings (52). But for all of Edenfield’s success as a player, it’s the “razzle-dazzle” she brings to the diamond that has truly captivated the softball community.

This artistry has become an essential part of her pregame routine.

“Makeup’s very satisfying, and it takes away from the pressure of the anxiety building up,” she told ESPN.

Edenfield and the Seminoles are now gearing up for the NCAA softball tournament. As the No. 5 overall seed, they have secured home-field advantage for the next two rounds. FSU’s quest to the 2025 Women’s College World Series begins on Friday against Robert Morris (2:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network) in the Tallahassee Regional.

Edenfield’s game day preparations will begin — as they long have — with makeup. Makeup once served as Edenfield’s “war paint,” protecting her from bullies and societal beauty standards. Today, it is just one of the many ways she embraces her individuality.

“It took me a while to translate ‘different’ into ‘unique,'” Edenfield said. “Owning the word ‘unique’ has really changed my mindset, both on the field and in my daily, personal life.”

THOUGH THE TOWN of Sneads, Florida, is an easy one-hour drive from Tallahassee, it feels a world apart. Towering pines give way to a community that constitutes just 4.4 square miles of the forested Florida panhandle. Sneads is bisected by Route 90, but cars cross gently with the help of a few blinking yellow traffic lights.

In the spring, a large share of Sneads’ 1,700 residents make their way to the local ballfields at the edge of town. The local park is flooded with athletes of all ages, throwing, catching, hitting and running. Members of the Edenfield family once did the same.

Edenfield’s mom, Tami Powell, and older sister, Aliesha, both played softball. Her aunt Teresa Fecteau even competed for the Florida State team from 1997 through 2000. But during Edenfield’s earliest years, she favored the artistic over the athletic.

“I refused to have dirt in between my fingers,” she said.

Edenfield grew up with a close relationship to her grandparents and was influenced by their creativity. Her grandfather, Roy, had a passion for photography, and her grandmother, Mary, owned a quilt shop in town. Soon, she was learning to paint, sew and play the piano. One year, she participated in the Little Miss Sneads pageant, wearing a pink lace dress made by her grandmother. Usually, however, Edenfield found herself on her own.

“As a little girl, I felt kind of discriminated against,” she said. Edenfield is biracial; her mom is white, and she does not have a relationship with her dad, who is Black.

“I was too white to be Black, too Black to be white,” she said.

Edenfield says she was being bullied as early as kindergarten. She specifically remembers being picked on for her hair. One day, she said, a group of kids threw Little Debbie snacks at her on the bus. It was an experience she endured alone. “How do you explain to your mom why you have Zebra Cake in your hair?” she said.

As Edenfield grew up, the bullying continued. But she didn’t let it stop her.

At around 10 years old, her competitive nature conquered her distaste for dirt. She started playing softball because she wanted to be a better pitcher than her sister. But Edenfield ultimately ended up finding her home behind the plate, training as a catcher. Here, she began to feel a sense of belonging.

“Sport was that special escape for me because it felt like I had found a community,” Edenfield said.

But a few hours on the field wasn’t enough to rid her of insecurities sown by repeated rejection.

“IF YOU CAN’T love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else?” RuPaul Charles asks at the end of each episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

The mantra reached a young Edenfield via YouTube, when she started seeing clips of the show online. As the drag queens donned their head-to-toe looks and competed in performance challenges, Edenfield admired their confidence.

“They just exude this natural charm,” she said. “And I wanted that as a kid.”

Shortly after starting softball, she began experimenting with makeup inspired by contestants on the show. She remembers one of her earliest looks: cobalt blue eyeshadow to match her polo and purse. It wasn’t long before she was wearing makeup on the field, too.

But instead of learning to love herself, as RuPaul preached, Edenfield said she used makeup as a “crutch,” with her primary goal being to fit in.

“I always secluded myself and almost doubted everything I did in life,” she said.

While the drag queens offered virtual support, she had another ally much closer to home: her grandfather. “He just wanted to instill confidence in me,” she said, “and he did so in [his] actions.”

Edenfield and her grandfather made countless trips to Tallahassee for training clinics at Florida State. He also helped build her a hitting post — a tire nailed to a four-by-four cemented into the ground. She quickly developed into a dual-threat player, powering her team’s offense at the plate while guiding its defense behind it.

By the time she got to high school, Edenfield had come into her own. In 2019, at the end of her junior year, she helped lead Sneads High School’s softball team to its first state championship game. Her senior year, she was named homecoming queen, and a few weeks later, on Nov. 22, she committed to Florida State.

“I wish I could have gone back in time to tell little Michaela that it was going to be just fine,” she said. “Eventually, you’re going to find your own confidence around the people that matter the most.”

THE FLORIDA STATE coaching staff had been familiar with Edenfield — and her interest in makeup — for years.

“It was crazy,” coach Lonni Alameda said of some of the more experimental looks Edenfield would wear to clinics as a young player. “But who doesn’t grow in their fashion and their makeup as they go through it?”

By the time Edenfield began her freshman year at Florida State, she had settled into a makeup routine. Everything else in her life, however, had turned upside down.

In July 2020, a few weeks before school started, Edenfield’s grandfather passed away, and in September, she contracted COVID-19. After testing positive for the virus, she had to undergo heart testing per the university’s requirements for athletes at the time. Per the Tallahassee Democrat, a heart murmur that hadn’t previously been detected showed up on her echocardiogram exam.

She expected to create new relationships with her teammates, but health and safety protocol kept her from team activities that fall.

Without the opportunity to show her skills, she said she began to doubt what a small-town softball player like her could contribute to a program that had won the national championship just two years prior.

“Sport was no longer my escape,” she said.

Edenfield described the experience as an “identity crisis.” She was forced to reopen some of her deepest wounds. After years of bullying and isolation, she had found her value on the softball field. But now, without it, she had to work to recognize that she still had worth.

Edenfield said Alameda was committed to helping her.

“Things are changing,” Alameda said of working with new players. “And if we don’t change and meet them where they’re at, and try to make them feel comfortable in the skin that they’re living in, then we lose the opportunity to connect with them.”

In time, Edenfield understood she was more than a softball player.

“I’m still myself even though I’m not holding a yellow ball and throwing it around with these girls,” she said.

That spring, when Edenfield could begin practicing with the group, she embraced the role of team player. She served as a bullpen catcher, supporting the pitchers who would compete.

Ahead of each game day, she’d ask one of them their favorite color, and then show up to the field wearing eyeshadow inspired by their response. As her redshirt season carried on, she became more adventurous with her makeup, sporting multi-color gradients and stick-on sparkles in the dugout.

Edenfield’s looks went largely unnoticed in the Seminoles’ trip to the 2021 WCWS championship. But when she stepped in as starting catcher the following season, her makeup began to draw attention, though not all of it positive.

“Trying too hard.”

“Lipstick on a pig.”

“Why is the coaching staff letting her do this?”

Edenfield said these kinds of comments began appearing on social media amidst the many messages of praise and support. Alameda said she even received emails regarding the makeup. But as Edenfield’s looks got bigger and bolder, Alameda’s mindset never changed. She told her, “‘Michaela, wear the makeup. And I’ll be right there with you. Let’s journey this together.'”

With the team’s support, Edenfield started posting behind-the-scenes videos of her pregame routine. First, get coffee; then, get glam. Dramatic smokey-eye and winged-liner looks evolved into miniature works of art, including tiny drawings and floral appliqués.

Edenfield’s only guideline? “My face, my rules.”

Makeup was no longer about fitting in; it was now Edenfield’s creative outlet and competitive advantage.

“ALRIGHTY, Y’ALL. THIS is the final look,” Edenfield says as she presents her face to the camera.

Her latest creations have been some of her most ambitious yet: the pink-and-purple-striped Cheshire Cat from “Alice in Wonderland,” intergalactic warfare from “Star Wars: Episode III,” and dreamy blue and yellow swirls from “The Starry Night,” the famous Vincent van Gogh painting.

Sometimes, Edenfield comes up with the ideas herself. Other times, they’re recommended by teammates. But many are requested by fans who treasure taking part in this ritual.

By the time the Seminoles returned to the WCWS championship in 2023, Edenfield had amassed a large following for both her athleticism and her artistry. Because she seemingly sent balls into orbit with her powerful swing, she also earned the nickname “Area 51” — a play on her jersey number.

Florida State lost to Oklahoma in the best-of-three series, as it did in 2021, but Edenfield had still made an indelible impact. Crowds of young girls, often in their own makeup looks, gathered after games for photos and autographs.

“She just kind of spreads to the team that it’s perfectly fine to just be yourself, and you don’t have to worry about what anybody else thinks,” said Jazzy Francik, a freshman pitcher who admired Edenfield before she even joined the Florida State team. “It just pushes that mold of you don’t have to just be good at one thing.”

Female athletes often face — perhaps to the highest degree — the many contradictions of modern womanhood: be confident, but not cocky; be engaged, but not emotional; be supportive, but not soft; be proud, but not pompous; be skillful, but not too strong.

And in Edenfield’s case, come to the field ready to compete, but don’t do it while wearing elaborate makeup.

“If you want to do some razzle dazzle, do some razzle dazzle,” Edenfield countered. “I think we’re allowed to be that way, and to feel feminine, and to want to show that piece, while we also can be very great, high-level athletes.”

And when it comes to softball, Edenfield is among the best. She ranks second at FSU this season in RBIs (47) and sits at third in homers (nine). The Seminole was one of 12 college players drafted to the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), which will begin its inaugural season June 7. Before that, however, she will look to lead FSU back to Oklahoma City for the WCWS.

Through it all, she will continue showing up in show-stopping looks that fuel her performance on the field.

“It’s not about, ‘Makeup, hide me.’ It’s about, ‘Makeup, this is me,'” Alameda said. “And I think that’s really, really powerful.”

Today, Edenfield finds strength in vulnerability. She isn’t afraid to revisit dark moments if it means helping someone else discover self-love.

“Within all of this,” Edenfield said, “I have found my light.”