Entertainer

Violet Chachki - I'm a huge fan of her work.

I'm kind of living a Bruce Wayne life and then morphing into Batman, but I'm glad now Batman comes out during the day. That's kind of like how drag was: we were called upon at night to make people smile and laugh and clap.

My brothers and sisters started having children at a very early age, and I was just there all alone at one point, like, 'What do I do?' And I thought the only thing I can do is create mine, make my family, and I did that.

I have so much to be thankful for.

Go out, live your best life, encourage and share your laugh, and make other people laugh.

Sometimes I wake up, and I'm like, 'Don't dream it. Be it. You're really living the dream. You are everything you've ever desired or set out to be. You're doing it.'

It's overwhelming that so many people love what you do and appreciate and get it. It's very rewarding.

My kids stand out at competitions. They're products of me. And you can't come to Beyond Belief and have a flamboyant teacher like me and be basic.

People know I like to laugh and have a good time. Even when I'm sassy, it's still kind of stupid-silly.

I can't tell you at DragCon how many families that waited in line to see me. Some of them waited up to five hours, and they had their family there. That's the beauty of this. I remember being that little gay boy in Mesquite that was so afraid of the world, like, 'Am I living right? Am I living wrong?'

I thought doing drag in the beginning was fun: playing dress up.

Positivity attracts positivity.

I think I'm just always myself, and I think that's what's most important to me. Just be genuine. Be authentic. Be who you are and who you were meant to be. And celebrate that. Celebrate all of that.

I'm just authentically, unapologetically myself. In and out of drag, in and out of the gig, in and out of the studio. My friends know. Miss Thing Over There wakes up 8 A.M. and she's on. The sun, the rain, the snow, whatever's going on outside, I'm ready.

You decide how to show up, and you'd better come correct: the way you look, what you say, how you act and react. No excuses! Get in front of the mirror and own what you see. You may have to drag your fabulousness out of hiding, but it's there.

When you fight for something, you fight the good fight. You go for it, you never stop. You get knocked down, and you get right back up. That's what we need to be teaching these kids. For that matter, even some adults.

I used to focus so much on winning. I used to be such a perfectionist.

I've changed as a person because of the art of drag.

There's beauty in everyone's mug and body-ody-ody, but taking care of those things requires a lot of work, energy, and effort.

I think what happened is I learned my strengths, but more importantly, I learned to embrace my weaknesses.