As Hailie Sahar freshens up her lipstick, she does so knowing that beauty is only skin deep. 

“We all wear a mask,” she said.

And when it comes to true peace and happiness? That’s something mascara and lipstick can't provide. 

“I think a lot of people have a misconception that when you’re beautiful, everything is OK. I think a lot of times people hide behind makeup,” she said. 

That’s how her world started. Sahar went to a performing arts school in Los Angeles for dancing as a child. Dancing later turned into acting, but all the while, she was waiting for her moment to break free. 

“I’ve always known who I was. It was the world who told me I was different, it was the world who told me that’s not normal,” she said. 

When she was around 18, she transitioned. As her career took off, she never looked back. 

“I love the art form of being multiple characters and telling stories,” she said. 

Her big break came with her role in the FX show, Pose, which was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best TV Series Drama in 2019. A second season will premiere this year. 

“This is the first time this is done in history, there are five leading trans women, trans writers and directors,” she said. 

It's a role that lets her be an actress and an activist. 

“I’ve never said this to anyone but my mother, is that I’ve had a really rough road being aesthetically what people deem as pretty because a lot of people either tried to harm me for that, I made a lot of people uncomfortable,” she said.

And so she started volunteering with the East L.A. Women’s Center, a center that helps ensure women live safely and free from abuse.  

“I think abuse is abuse. Any form you’ve been through, discrimination, it’s not good,” she said. 

She’s now one of the center's ambassadors helping the organization with all it does, from crisis intervention services, to leadership groups like this one getting women back on their feet after domestic violence.

The center also goes out into the community, offering up safety and prevention gift bags packed with necessities to potential victims of human trafficking.

Simply put, it’s a center that helps women who have been beaten down emotionally or physically. 

“I understand why I was given the gift of art and why I was given the struggle of being a minority, a multiracial woman, and a woman of trans experience,” she said. 

Now, she wears makeup with confidence. No longer using it to cover up, but rather to showcase and flaunt who she is inside. Her advice for others?

“Seek help. As dark as the world is sometimes, there are beautiful people who want to help you,” she said. 

And knowing some people out there are unsure of who they are may watch her show and feel empowered?

“That’s a blessing,” she said.