How drag helped iconic UK queen Blu Hydrangea overcome the haters and find her ‘tribe’
Blu Hydrangea has said that watching Drag Race when she was young helped her feel beautiful.
The star, who appeared in series one of Drag Race UK and went on to perform on Dancing with the Stars, said she had to deal with homophobia and her family’s previous “close-minded” attitudes before finding her “tribe” through drag.
In drag, Bly Hydrangea’s pronouns are she/they, out of drag they are he/they.
“I was always told by people around me that I shouldn’t be myself,” she told PinkNews. “It was like: ‘Don’t be queer, don’t be feminine’. I grew up with that mentality until I found Drag Race, which was me finding my tribe.”
Hydrangea, who is also part of the group Frock Destroyers, along with fellow contestants Baga Chipz and Divina de Campo, said that being happy is what makes her feel most beautiful.
“I’ve been lucky to have met a gorgeous partner who supported me in every single way a person could,” she added. “Whenever I came out, my family was super accepting, despite everything they had said when I was young.”
Watching drag helped her see a future, and, she went on to say, the art form is, of course, nothing like the stereotypes right-wing anti-drag campaigners would have people believe.
“When I found Drag Race, I was 11 years old. I watched it every night and saw these people who have completely accepted themselves and allowed themselves to be their ultimate version.”
Blu Hydrangea, who is quoted as saying: “I’m not male or female. I’m just somewhere in between”, has previously spoken about growing up in Northern Ireland and praying not to be gay, revealing that teachers would make “passive-aggressive comments about queer people”.
In an interview with Sunday World, she said: “I remember I used to pray, ‘Please fix me’. My dad would make jokes about ‘you better never bring a man home.’ That’s the things that were ingrained in me… there was definitely a fear about being myself.”
However, after coming out, her dad accepted her “almost immediately”.
