How Queer Eye’s first lesbian hero, Jess, found a family in the Fab Five

Few people have so perfectly embodied the spirit of Queer Eye as the show’s first lesbian hero, Jess Guilbeaux.

When the Fab Five—food and wine specialist Antoni Porowski, interior design expert Bobby Berk, grooming master Jonathan Van Ness, culture guru Karamo Brown, and style authority Tan France—first meet Jess, she looks lost, sad, almost hopeless.

[Warning: Spoilers ahead.]

Jess had come out to her religious, adoptive family at 16 years old. They shunned her, and she’s had to take care of herself ever since, while also struggling with coming to terms with her identity as a black lesbian woman.

At 23 years old, Jess appeared reluctant to trust people and let others see her vulnerabilities.

“I just feel like, maybe, family is not something that I’m going to have,” she said in a particularly emotional exchange.

Queer Eye’s first lesbian hero Jess was shunned by her parents when she came out to them as a teenager. (Netflix)

By the end of the week, the physical difference is minimal, but the mental change is impressive.

Jess has found out who she is—a confident, strong, black, beautiful lesbian woman—and who her real family is.

PinkNews spoke to Jess about her life-changing experience ahead of the Queer Eye Season 3 Netflix premiere on March 15.

She had yet to see her own episode, which was filmed in August.