born with the surname figueroa, estrella entered the foster system when she was five years old. her mother couldn't afford to raise a child and fund her drug addiction and estrella had no other family nor a father who could take her in. she was adopted by the erikson family and was raised in the predominantly white city of fort dodge, iowa. throughout her entire school career, she was one of a handful of people of color, and found it was easier to go by "ellie" than to expect the other kids to pronounce her name correctly. for years, she wanted nothing more than to be like the beautiful blonde girls in her class, with their fair skin and light eyes. she hated her thick hair and full lips, and did everything she could to fit in with her peers. the only time she was around people who looked like her was when she began attending camp arapahoe, recommended to her parents by a family friend. even there, she spent the first few summers with the white kids rather than the latinos, feeling she fit in more with the people who looked like her classmates.

when she finally reached graduation and was learning more about the world, she began to embrace her latina roots in small doses. estrella was tired of feeling like an outsider, tired of the "brown on the outside, white on the inside" jokes, and tired of covering up her low self esteem. her parents meant well but they didn't know how to make their daughter feel better, and so they supported her decision to continue going to camp arapahoe as a counselor during her summer breaks from college. staying within such close proximity to denver, she scouted jobs there and eventually made the permanent move, hoping that she could extend the peaceful feeling she felt during her summers. in denver, she met her future husband and became estrella bianchi. he was a dream come true, everything a girl could hope for. they spent several years together, happy and blissful, and relocated to las vegas.

as fate would have it, the marriage crashed in the worst way, and estrella has been living the single life ever since. she is in no rush to start a new relationship and in no rush to explain to anyone what exactly happened between her and her ex. what's most evident about her these days is her fresh, independent outlook on life, the large sum of money she mysteriously has though no one seems to know exactly how she earned it, and a number of cosmetic surgeries. but her philosophy is that whatever other people think about her isn't her business. she's spent enough time trying to fill other people's expectations and she'll never be that girl again.