TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — “If you recognize the time, you recognize the vibe,” Florida State softball catcher Michaela Edenfield tells her almost 126,000 TikTok followers at the beginning of her sport day movies. “It is time to do some razzle dazzle on my eyes.”
That is Edenfield’s cue to followers that she’s about to convey her artistic imaginative and prescient to life. With make-up as her medium, she is an artist at work, recording and sharing “prepare with me” movies which have amassed tons of of hundreds of views and greater than 4 million likes.
Edenfield makes use of palettes of candy-colored eyeshadows, small pots of face paint, tubes of liquid glitter, and infrequently, some rhinestones, to ship dramatic appears to be like match for the stage.
Or in her case, the sector.
“It is the psychological preparation behind closed doorways,” she defined, “and each high-level athlete has their very own means of discovering that.”
The 6-foot-1 redshirt senior is FSU’s beginning catcher and a key contributor at-bat, sitting third in this system’s profession residence run standings (52). However for all of Edenfield’s success as a participant, it is the “razzle-dazzle” she brings to the diamond that has actually captivated the softball neighborhood.
This artistry has develop into an important a part of her pregame routine.
“Make-up’s very satisfying, and it takes away from the strain of the anxiousness build up,” she informed ESPN.
Edenfield and the Seminoles at the moment are gearing up for the NCAA softball event. Because the No. 5 general seed, they’ve secured home-field benefit for the subsequent two rounds. FSU’s quest to the 2025 Ladies’s School World Collection begins on Friday in opposition to Robert Morris (2:30 p.m. ET, ACC Community) within the Tallahassee Regional.
Edenfield’s sport day preparations will start — as they lengthy have — with make-up. Make-up as soon as served as Edenfield’s “battle paint,” defending her from bullies and societal magnificence requirements. As we speak, it’s simply one of many some ways she embraces her individuality.
“It took me some time to translate ‘totally different’ into ‘distinctive,'” Edenfield mentioned. “Proudly owning the phrase ‘distinctive’ has actually modified my mindset, each on the sector and in my every day, private life.”
THOUGH THE TOWN of Sneads, Florida, is a straightforward one-hour drive from Tallahassee, it feels a world aside. Towering pines give option to a neighborhood that constitutes simply 4.4 sq. miles of the forested Florida panhandle. Sneads is bisected by Route 90, however automobiles cross gently with the assistance of some blinking yellow site visitors lights.
Within the spring, a big share of Sneads’ 1,700 residents make their option to the native ballfields on the fringe of city. The native park is flooded with athletes of all ages, throwing, catching, hitting and working. Members of the Edenfield household as soon as did the identical.
Edenfield’s mother, Tami Powell, and older sister, Aliesha, each performed softball. Her aunt Teresa Fecteau even competed for the Florida State workforce from 1997 by 2000. However throughout Edenfield’s earliest years, she favored the creative over the athletic.
“I refused to have dust in between my fingers,” she mentioned.
Edenfield grew up with an in depth relationship to her grandparents and was influenced by their creativity. Her grandfather, Roy, had a ardour for images, and her grandmother, Mary, owned a quilt store on the town. Quickly, she was studying to color, sew and play the piano. One yr, she participated within the Little Miss Sneads pageant, sporting a pink lace costume made by her grandmother. Often, nonetheless, Edenfield discovered herself on her personal.
“As a little bit woman, I felt type of discriminated in opposition to,” she mentioned. Edenfield is biracial; her mother is white, and he or she doesn’t have a relationship along with her dad, who’s Black.
“I used to be too white to be Black, too Black to be white,” she mentioned.
Edenfield says she was being bullied as early as kindergarten. She particularly remembers being picked on for her hair. Someday, she mentioned, a gaggle of children threw Little Debbie snacks at her on the bus. It was an expertise she endured alone. “How do you clarify to your mother why you’ve gotten Zebra Cake in your hair?” she mentioned.
As Edenfield grew up, the bullying continued. However she did not let it cease her.
At round 10 years outdated, her aggressive nature conquered her distaste for dust. She began taking part in softball as a result of she needed to be a greater pitcher than her sister. However Edenfield in the end ended up discovering her residence behind the plate, coaching as a catcher. Right here, she started to really feel a way of belonging.
“Sport was that particular escape for me as a result of it felt like I had discovered a neighborhood,” Edenfield mentioned.
However a couple of hours on the sector wasn’t sufficient to rid her of insecurities sown by repeated rejection.
“IF YOU CAN’T love your self, how within the hell are you going to like any person else?” RuPaul Charles asks on the finish of every episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
The mantra reached a younger Edenfield by way of YouTube, when she began seeing clips of the present on-line. Because the drag queens donned their head-to-toe appears to be like and competed in efficiency challenges, Edenfield admired their confidence.
“They only exude this pure allure,” she mentioned. “And I needed that as a child.”
Shortly after beginning softball, she started experimenting with make-up impressed by contestants on the present. She remembers one among her earliest appears to be like: cobalt blue eyeshadow to match her polo and purse. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than she was sporting make-up on the sector, too.
However as a substitute of studying to like herself, as RuPaul preached, Edenfield mentioned she used make-up as a “crutch,” along with her major aim being to slot in.
“I at all times secluded myself and virtually doubted every part I did in life,” she mentioned.
Whereas the drag queens provided digital assist, she had one other ally a lot nearer to residence: her grandfather. “He simply needed to instill confidence in me,” she mentioned, “and he did so in [his] actions.”
Edenfield and her grandfather made numerous journeys to Tallahassee for coaching clinics at Florida State. He additionally helped construct her a hitting put up — a tire nailed to a four-by-four cemented into the bottom. She shortly developed right into a dual-threat participant, powering her workforce’s offense on the plate whereas guiding its protection behind it.
By the point she received to highschool, Edenfield had come into her personal. In 2019, on the finish of her junior yr, she helped lead Sneads Excessive Faculty’s softball workforce to its first state championship sport. Her senior yr, she was named homecoming queen, and some weeks later, on Nov. 22, she dedicated to Florida State.
“I want I may have gone again in time to inform little Michaela that it was going to be simply high-quality,” she mentioned. “Ultimately, you are going to discover your individual confidence across the those that matter essentially the most.”
THE FLORIDA STATE teaching employees had been accustomed to Edenfield — and her curiosity in make-up — for years.
“It was loopy,” coach Lonni Alameda mentioned of a few of the extra experimental appears to be like Edenfield would put on to clinics as a younger participant. “However who would not develop of their trend and their make-up as they undergo it?”
By the point Edenfield started her freshman yr at Florida State, she had settled right into a make-up routine. Every thing else in her life, nonetheless, had turned the wrong way up.
In July 2020, a couple of weeks earlier than faculty began, Edenfield’s grandfather handed away, and in September, she contracted COVID-19. After testing optimistic for the virus, she needed to endure coronary heart testing per the college’s necessities for athletes on the time. Per the Tallahassee Democrat, a coronary heart murmur that hadn’t beforehand been detected confirmed up on her echocardiogram examination.
She anticipated to create new relationships along with her teammates, however well being and security protocol saved her from workforce actions that fall.
With out the chance to indicate her abilities, she mentioned she started to doubt what a small-town softball participant like her may contribute to a program that had gained the nationwide championship simply two years prior.
“Sport was now not my escape,” she mentioned.
Edenfield described the expertise as an “identification disaster.” She was compelled to reopen a few of her deepest wounds. After years of bullying and isolation, she had discovered her worth on the softball subject. However now, with out it, she needed to work to acknowledge that she nonetheless had value.
Edenfield mentioned Alameda was dedicated to serving to her.
“Issues are altering,” Alameda mentioned of working with new gamers. “And if we do not change and meet them the place they’re at, and attempt to make them really feel comfy within the pores and skin that they are dwelling in, then we lose the chance to attach with them.”
In time, Edenfield understood she was greater than a softball participant.
“I am nonetheless myself though I am not holding a yellow ball and throwing it round with these women,” she mentioned.
That spring, when Edenfield may start training with the group, she embraced the function of workforce participant. She served as a bullpen catcher, supporting the pitchers who would compete.
Forward of every sport day, she’d ask one among them their favourite coloration, after which present as much as the sector sporting eyeshadow impressed by their response. As her redshirt season carried on, she turned extra adventurous along with her make-up, sporting multi-color gradients and stick-on sparkles within the dugout.
Edenfield’s appears to be like went largely unnoticed within the Seminoles’ journey to the 2021 WCWS championship. However when she stepped in as beginning catcher the next season, her make-up started to attract consideration, although not all of it optimistic.
“Attempting too onerous.”
“Lipstick on a pig.”
“Why is the teaching employees letting her do that?”
Edenfield mentioned these sorts of feedback started showing on social media amidst the numerous messages of reward and assist. Alameda mentioned she even acquired emails relating to the make-up. However as Edenfield’s appears to be like received greater and bolder, Alameda’s mindset by no means modified. She informed her, “‘Michaela, put on the make-up. And I will be proper there with you. Let’s journey this collectively.'”
With the workforce’s assist, Edenfield began posting behind-the-scenes movies of her pregame routine. First, get espresso; then, get glam. Dramatic smokey-eye and winged-liner appears to be like developed into miniature artistic endeavors, together with tiny drawings and floral appliqués.
Edenfield’s solely guideline? “My face, my guidelines.”
Make-up was now not about becoming in; it was now Edenfield’s artistic outlet and aggressive benefit.
“ALRIGHTY, Y’ALL. THIS is the ultimate look,” Edenfield says as she presents her face to the digicam.
Her newest creations have been a few of her most bold but: 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 Evening,” the well-known Vincent van Gogh portray.
Typically, Edenfield comes up with the concepts herself. Different occasions, they’re beneficial by teammates. However many are requested by followers who treasure participating on this ritual.
By the point the Seminoles returned to the WCWS championship in 2023, Edenfield had amassed a big following for each her athleticism and her artistry. As a result of she seemingly despatched balls into orbit along with her highly effective swing, she additionally earned the nickname “Space 51” — a play on her jersey quantity.
Florida State misplaced to Oklahoma within the best-of-three sequence, because it did in 2021, however Edenfield had nonetheless made an indelible affect. Crowds of younger women, usually in their very own make-up appears to be like, gathered after video games for photographs and autographs.
“She simply type of spreads to the workforce that it is completely high-quality to only be your self, and you do not have to fret about what anyone else thinks,” mentioned Jazzy Francik, a freshman pitcher who admired Edenfield earlier than she even joined the Florida State workforce. “It simply pushes that mould of you do not have to only be good at one factor.”
Feminine athletes usually face — maybe to the very best diploma — the numerous contradictions of recent womanhood: be assured, however not cocky; be engaged, however not emotional; be supportive, however not mushy; be proud, however not pompous; be skillful, however not too robust.
And in Edenfield’s case, come to the sector able to compete, however do not do it whereas sporting elaborate make-up.
“If you wish to do some razzle dazzle, do some razzle dazzle,” Edenfield countered. “I believe we’re allowed to be that means, and to really feel female, and to need to present that piece, whereas we additionally will be very nice, high-level athletes.”
And relating to softball, Edenfield is among the many finest. She ranks second at FSU this season in RBIs (47) and sits at third in homers (9). The Seminole was one among 12 faculty gamers drafted to the Athletes Limitless Softball League (AUSL), which is able to start its inaugural season June 7. Earlier than that, nonetheless, she is going to look to guide FSU again to Oklahoma Metropolis for the WCWS.
By means of all of it, she is going to proceed exhibiting up in show-stopping appears to be like that gasoline her efficiency on the sector.
“It isn’t about, ‘Make-up, cover me.’ It is about, ‘Make-up, that is me,'” Alameda mentioned. “And I believe that is actually, actually highly effective.”
As we speak, Edenfield finds power in vulnerability. She is not afraid to revisit darkish moments if it means serving to another person uncover self-love.
“Inside all of this,” Edenfield mentioned, “I’ve discovered my gentle.”
