Symone drag race factory9/12/2023 "I didn't know that people would love me so much and resonate with me so much," she explains. She had made it through after only auditioning once previously ("I don't know what I thought I was going to get onto with that tape.") But, outside of rare low points like the roast, she found the competition transformative not because of the eventual crown or cash but because of how it changed her relationship with herself. She watched herself compete in the world's biggest drag competition as the world reacted to it. The first four months of 2021 were a race for Symone. "Each one of them are icons in their own right." And of course, RuPaul is the "blueprint."Īlexandre Vaultier Couture Dress XIV Karats Earrings, Necklace These women are "always on the moodboards, always on my mind," she says. Much like RuPaul Charles has a recipe for the drag persona Monster, which many of us know simply as RuPaul, Reggie Gavin has a recipe for their drag persona Symone: the business aptitude and unapologetic heart of Rihanna the sticky-sweet glamour of Diana Ross the class and soul of Whitney Houston the sexy ferocity of Lil' Kim the innate charisma of Tina Turner and the staying power of Naomi Campbell. She combined those references with a core group of Black women to create the Symone the world knows today. This experience exposed the budding performer to all of the references she needed to learn. The read became a conversation, an introduction, and an invitation: Symone soon after joined the House of Avalon, a queer collective (now all living in one Los Angeles duplex) that included founders Monroe and Hunter Crenshaw. While attending the University of Arkansas at Little Rock studying mass communications, Symone met Vanderbilt, who read her down after judging the Fresh Fish drag competition at Club Sway. A trajectory that Symone, this year, launched toward in earnest.Ī move to Little Rock brought family and growth. The confidence, the seemingly unending schedule - the night before our L.A shoot she was hosting an event in New York City for Madonna, and the next day she was in San Francisco - and the disciplined, supportive team all working under a singular vision foreshadow quite the trajectory for the Arkansas-born performer. This seems, and will likely prove to be, some of the early days of a star taking off. It seems like the perfectly-oiled machine: Symone trusting herself and her team members (Vanderbilt and Monroe,) who are tossing words of encouragement and adjusting anything that might be out of place. Still, watching Symone throw pose after pose (with and without a toddler in her arms), allowing photographer Micaiah Carter to capture angle after angle, is something to behold. Times have changed, largely because of the trail blazed by Ru. Especially because at that time, a drag queen holding a Black baby on the cover was a big deal." "That cover is from one of my favorite eras of RuPaul," Symone tells Out later over the phone.
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