Growing up, Symone watched the reality show she's now starring in because it gave her a mirror to look into: proof that other worlds existed. For similar reasons, she chose to join the show in its 13th season. "To the young queer babies trapped in those rural parts of the country, thinking you can't do anything or your dreams are too big, look at this and know that they are not," she wrote on Instagram, of her participation on RuPaul's Drag Race.
That's because Symone is not just a celebration of vivid, flamboyant femininity. She's not just fabulous at shopping, or blowing Instagram up with unbearably sexy nearly-nudes. She is also the answer to the struggles that Reggie Gavin survived, growing up as a Black gay man. "I felt like my Blackness, my queerness made people uncomfortable. I couldn't be too loud, too expressive, too feminine, too aggressive, or too smart," she reflected on The Gram. Doing drag became her way to shine, unapologetically. To British Vogue, Symone described Gavin as a mask. On the other hand, she described Symone as her true self, "the child underneath, the woman that society tears down."
