Secret superstar: the making of drag queen Yvie Oddly
Yvie Oddly grew up suppressing her feelings and showing socially-acceptable faces to the world. It was only in drag that she could finally find and express her true self.
Yvie Oddly is one of the most famous winners of Ru Paul's Drag Race, making waves with her unconventional and artistic style. But her emergence into the limelight was far from straightforward. She grew up in a family of revolutionaries and yet was taught to reject femininity and toe the line by a stepfather who, during Yvie's childhood, believed men should be 'real men'. Yvie also hid chronic pain caused by hyper-mobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. But a door to the future opened one Valentine's Day at school when she performed in her first ever drag show under the watchful eye of previous Drag Race contestant Venus D-Lite. That experience saw the birth of Yvie Oddly, and was the start of a journey where Yvie learned to be as authentically herself out of drag as she is in it.
She has written about her experiences in her book All About Yvie: Into the Oddity.
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