Sasha Colby of “Drag Race” Has Made Queer History: “Here I Am”

Sasha Colby has reached a point in her career where she’s pinning herself to the top of her own inspiration boards. As the first trans and native Hawaiian woman to take home the crown on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” your drag queen’s favorite drag queen is determined to keep the momentum going. “It’s really cool to know that I get to be part of queer history,” Colby tells POPSUGAR. “Like in this moment in time, there’s a spot in queer history that I got to be in, and hopefully leave the space a little better, a little more fabulous, than I found it.”

An undercover history buff, Colby says fashion icons like Naomi Campbell, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren are among the visionaries who helped build her signature sultry aesthetic. Now, having partnered with Pinterest to curate her personal vision board, she’s still hungry for inspiration. “I’m not trying to be a creator. I want to be a content miner,” she laughs. “Because you know, mother’s feeding the world, but mother has to get fed.”

Prior to “Drag Race,” Colby says she actually used the platform as a logistical tool to organize her thoughts and outfits. “I literally pulled out so many Pinterest boards and made another board of inspos for the show,” she says. “It’s always been very helpful.”

Following her phenomenal performance on season 15, mainstream success has put all eyes on Colby, and she can feel the difference. “Now it’s a little lab-ratty, like everyone’s watching me,” she says (although she’s been considered a legend in the drag community for years). “When we’re just doing [drag] for ourselves, it’s fun. And then you do a post, and all of a sudden people are reposting it.”

At the same time, Colby understands this kind of visibility can be incredibly valuable – especially given the uptick in laws targeting trans identities and furthering harmful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community. “It’s like we’re getting bullied again. You feel so alone,” she says. “I feel like when you got bullied at school and the teacher won’t even help you.”

It’s an odd feeling to be thriving professionally despite all the vitriol surrounding the community, but Colby continues to arrive as her most authentic self anyway. It’s just proof that she doesn’t just pin her inspiration, she lives it. “This is such an amazing year for me personally, which is so wild [with] all the legislation, but I’m like, ‘Here I am,'” she says. “Whatever they’re saying is harmful and they want to eradicate, here I am, still doing it.”

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