Alyssa Edwards

You can't say the word 'queen' without a little bit of 'drama' in front of it, right? It comes with the territory. Throwing shade and all that is part of the gig, but it should all kind of be in fun at the end of the day. When you start turning down that dark road where there's no light? Sometimes you put the car in park.

The greatest gift I've ever received is being a teacher.

I'm a very real person that has overcome a lot, so I think I'm relatable.

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.

It's like you're waiting on the world to change, but I'm actually living it, because I wonder: If there was a DragCon when I was a child or even a search engine or 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' maybe my father would have been different. Maybe our relationship now wouldn't be different.

A good dancer is not necessarily defined by great technique, skill, or ability to pick up choreography but by confidence. When you feel the music, it penetrates to your soul. Everybody's a dancer. The greatest dancer is someone who is willing to dance, not afraid.

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

It took a lot of years of me on my own, coaching myself, to look in the mirror and love the reflection.

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

You don't have to win 'Drag Race' to really win. And I am living proof of that, thank you Mary J. Blige!

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.'

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?'