I won RuPaul’s Drag Race when I was 24, and I’m 30 now. It’s crazy to me that there was ever a time before Drag Race. Then again, I’ve been doing drag since I was 15, so it also feels like everything pre–Drag Race was just practice for what life was going to be like after I was given my big break. Or as I like to refer to it, one of my big breaks. My first big break. There will be more to come.
We filmed three endings of that season of Drag Race, so we didn’t find out until the night the episode aired who the winner was. I had prepared myself for any outcome, but I felt very confident that day. One of the hardest things about it was that I had grown so close with Alaska and Roxxxy, the other two finalists, that even though I wanted more than anything to win, I was also worried about my two new friends. Knowing how much I wanted it, I could only assume they wanted it just as much.