Tris Shelby

Previously, she was Beatrice from the play Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice's uncle Leonato was the governor of Messina and she lived with him and her cousin Hero. They welcome some soldiers home from the war: Don Pedro, a prince and dear friend of Leonato; Benedick, who Beatrice has an argumentative history with; and Claudio. Claudio and Hero fall in love and plan to marry; they and their friends decide to spend the week until the wedding trying to get Beatrice and Benedick together. It works, but they don't get to tell each other before Don John puts in motion a plan to make it look like Hero has been unfaithful. Claudio rejects her at the wedding, and Hero faints. Quite a bit of conniving and planning of revenge ensues--Hero's death is faked, Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio--but after it's discovered that Don John was behind the whole thing, things end happily. Claudio repents, Hero is revealed to be alive, Beatrice and Benedick confess their love for each other, and the two couples celebrate their double wedding.

Now she's Tris Shelby, 23. Tris isn't a big fan of men. Her dad (a movie producer who got started with family money) left her mom (now-famous fashion designer Lisa Shelby) when her mom reached the same level of success he had. Her serious college boyfriend posted her nudes on a revenge porn site after they broke up, which got picked up by tabloid news. Her childhood best friend Ashley's boyfriend started beating on Ashley almost as soon as they started cohabitating. Oh, and you can bet that when she publicly came out as queer, it was men who had the most to say about it, especially when she said she was only interested in relationships with women at this point in her life. What about the good ones? Well, first, if you "not all men" in her direction, she's as likely to block you or tell you to fuck off as anything, but yes, of course, there have been men who haven't been a total disappointment. Like her brother, barely 18 months younger than her, who died in an accident when she was in high school. Or her good friend David who killed himself a little over a year ago.

Her life otherwise is pretty privileged, and she's the first to acknowledge that. She's never wanted for money, and even if she never makes a name for herself outside the influence of either of her parents, she probably never will. After modeling for her mother's line starting at 16, she's continued to be a minor presence in some pretty notable shows and campaigns. And when she decided at 18 that she didn't want to be in LA or New York, she had no trouble picking up and moving to New Orleans. Tris does try to use that privilege for good, though. She's supported the establishment of revenge porn laws and has helped a lot of women, famous and not, navigate the waters of having their private images leaked. She provided the means to get Ashley out of her abusive relationship and they've been roommates ever since. And she helps direct the philanthropic decisions of her mother's company. Tris is fiercely protective of the people she cares about, both individuals and groups, and though she's incredibly kind, she isn't always nice. She will make trouble and she will stir the pot if things aren't to her liking, and if you try to say shit like "life isn't fair" to her as if that's something to be accepted instead of something to be fixed, prepare to catch these hands.

Tris is currently unaware.

Previously, she was Beatrice from the play Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice's uncle Leonato was the governor of Messina and she lived with him and her cousin Hero. They welcome some soldiers home from the war: Don Pedro, a prince and dear friend of Leonato; Benedick, who Beatrice has an argumentative history with; and Claudio. Claudio and Hero fall in love and plan to marry; they and their friends decide to spend the week until the wedding trying to get Beatrice and Benedick together. It works, but they don't get to tell each other before Don John puts in motion a plan to make it look like Hero has been unfaithful. Claudio rejects her at the wedding, and Hero faints. Quite a bit of conniving and planning of revenge ensues--Hero's death is faked, Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio--but after it's discovered that Don John was behind the whole thing, things end happily. Claudio repents, Hero is revealed to be alive, Beatrice and Benedick confess their love for each other, and the two couples celebrate their double wedding.

Now she's Tris Shelby, 25. Tris grew up in a small town in Vermont. It was quiet, it was safe...okay, it was boring, but the leaves looked beautiful in the fall and she was never short of Ben & Jerry's or maple syrup. She went to school, walked the family dog, and played with the girl next door, Ashley. They were best friends pretty much by default--in the same class, on the same soccer team, their birthdays only a few weeks apart. Ashley was the first girl Tris ever had a crush on, which she realized when they were 12 but didn't get around to telling Ashley until they were 14. Ashley didn't feel the same way, and things got kind of awkward between them, their friendship never quite the same. But Ashley also never told anyone else, so Tris made it through high school relatively unscathed.

Tris went to a liberal arts college a couple hours away, where she really blossomed. She dated, she got involved in a bunch of different groups and causes, and she argued a lot--with students and professors both--in her classes. She was a junior when she got a message from Ashley out of the blue one day; Ashley's boyfriend had started smacking her around and she needed to a place to crash while she worked on disentangling their lives. There wasn't a lot of space in Tris' dorm room, but her floor was Ashley's floor, as far as she was concerned. Ashley crashed for a few weeks until her stuff had been safely retrieved from the apartment she'd shared with her boyfriend and then went to stay with her aunt in New Hampshire to get on her feet again. Tris had already been angling towards social work as a career, but knowing how much worse it could have gotten for Ashley helped push her in the direction of domestic violence elimination.

After graduation she moved to New Orleans to get a master's degree in social work at Tulane. Now she works as a client advocate at a local women's shelter. It's great work, and she wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now, but it takes its toll. Tris has to rein herself in way more than she'd like when fundraising efforts roll around--people-pleasing is not something that comes naturally to her--and seeing what her clients have been through and continue to go through is pretty heart-breaking. She could use a little happy in her life to replenish her fuel tanks.

Tris is currently unaware.