From 2018 to 2022 she served as one of her party's deputy chairs, under the leadership of Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck.

Born to a physiotherapist and a computer scientist, Schäfer grew up in Munich’s Großhadern district.

[1] In 2012 she started a law degree at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, which she did not complete.

Since 2013 she is studying sociology with a minor in philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Goethe University Frankfurt which she had not completed as of February 2022[2][3][4] From 2015 to 2017, Schäfer served as chair of the Green Youth, the Green Party’s youth organisation.

[14] In early 2022, Schäfer became one of the six subjects of an embezzlement investigation launched by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office into the entire leadership board of the Green Party over the payment of so-called ‘corona bonuses,’ which had been paid in 2020 to all employees of the party’s federal office and at the same time to its board.