Lil Miss Hot Mess has been dressing up and bringing her fabulous self to stage in drag for almost two decades. She has taken over stages, schools, libraries, book pages, and TV screens, educating and introducing the young and young at heart about LGBTQ culture, drag, and anything that captures the imagination. But on March 27, Lil Miss Hot Mess woke up to the news of having taken over one place she did not anticipate—the United States Congress.
In a subcommittee meeting of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) led a presentation arguing that the federal government should defund news broadcasters NPR and PBS. Her reasoning, among others: PBS had aired, on the educational program Let’s Learn, a segment featuring Lil Miss Hot Mess reading her book The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish. Greene said, “If I had walked in my living room or one of my children’s bedrooms and seen this child predator and this monster targeting my children, I would become unglued.”
“Personally, it was surreal to wake up that morning and have a flurry of messages from friends sharing this photo of her with a giant photo of me behind her, and her calling me truly nasty, and I would say, defamatory, names,” Lil Hot Mess said in an interview. “I did chuckle to myself, because I was like, she chose a great photo, and clearly no one told her that you never work with children or animals—and certainly not drag queens, because we will always upstage you.”
Drag programming, especially Drag Story Hour where drag queens and kings read children’s books in libraries and schools, has long faced backlash. From polite protests to bomb threats, many social conservatives have opposed what Lil Miss Hot Mess calls an important cultural literacy initiative. “My hope is always that we’re going beyond LGBTQ 101 basic definitions and creating something deeper—understanding what it means to be different in the world and defining difference,” she said.
In light of increasing threats to vital LGBTQ voices, we spoke to Lil Miss Hot Mess about her new book Make Your Own Rainbow, facing censorship, and the most heart-warming takeaway from reading and writing about drag to kids.
What do you hope is the takeaway for kids from Drag Story Hour?
I hope that kids have a good time and hopefully that they learn something. For me, that’s often less about wondering, “did they learn a particular lesson?” and instead I want them to flex their imagination, to engage creatively, to read between the lines and see that drag is all about transforming yourself. It’s about finding your inner sparkle and letting that shine more outwardly. It’s about standing up for yourself and those around you and what you believe in. Those are the kinds of things that are just fundamental to drag. It is so sad to me that our detractors suggest that we’re indoctrinating children or accusing us of all these terrible things, when really we’re trying to open up their minds, and we’re trying to help them be critical thinkers on their own. I’m not naive to think that there’s not a political element to this, especially in today’s world, where so much of our political discourse is about telling people what to do, making people feel afraid, making people distrust one another, spreading lies and misinformation. But on the other side, what we’re doing is really trying to teach kids to ask questions, to be curious about the world, to be confident in expressing themselves.
What are some of your most memorable moments from Drag Story Hour?
Some of the sweetest moments at story hours are when kids show up in their own dress up, whatever that looks like for them. It’s usually not full on drag, but oftentimes kids wear their sparkly shoes or a dress that they like to twirl around in, or something with a rainbow on it. And you can tell that it makes them feel special. On a fundamental level, that is what drag is about: it’s dressing up, putting something on, transforming yourself to make yourself feel that much more fabulous.
I just heard from a teacher who I did a virtual event for her school about a year ago featuring my children’s books. One of them is called, If You’re A Drag Queen And You Know It—it’s a take on If You’re Happy And You Know It. This teacher wrote to me saying that her students used that as a jumping off point to write their own versions on the theme, like, “if you’re a big sister and you know it,” “if you’re a soccer player and you know it,” which is just something that I never would have thought of. And so it’s wonderful to think about how these books, these story hours, open up other opportunities for creativity that go beyond me or my work.
What inspires you to write books?
My first two books started as songs that I would sing with kids at story hours. I was looking for ways to make story hours more interactive and to bring more of a kid-friendly taste of drag culture into these spaces. A large part of drag culture is about commenting on and sometimes parodying elements of pop culture. I thought: “what are some common kids songs, and how could we add these elements of drag to them?” It was also a treat to watch kids swish their hips and shimmy their shoulders in unabashed ways, as those kinds of behaviors were ones that—as a young, queer, feminine child myself—were discouraged. So being able to create a safe space where kids can express themselves is just so meaningful to get to witness and be part of. That’s not to say all kids should be effeminate or swish their hips, but I think it’s about creating the space where kids can experiment and take risks in their own way. Not too long into doing those in story hours, I was approached by a couple of different publishers and author friends, and just realized that there was an opportunity to transform these into books, and doing so helps some kids and families take some of the magic home of story hour with them, and also reach kids who may not live in places where we are actively doing Drag Story Hours.
And I will also just say that I felt so lucky to be able to work with not only a phenomenal publisher, Running Press Kids, but also a truly brilliant illustrator (Olga de Dios Ruiz) who has really brought these drag characters to life in ways that exceeded my expectations.
And just to put in a plug for my latest book, it’s called Make Your Own Rainbow, encouraging kids to learn about unconventional colors outside of the ROYGBIV of the rainbow. I was one of those kids who wanted the biggest box of crayons I could get, and loved studying all the names of different colors, and felt proud when I could say my favorite color is emerald. I want to empower kids with that knowledge and also encourage them to think about the many shades and hues that make up our world. It’s both reality and a metaphor, but I think we can only create more joy and beauty if we have more colors in our palette.
What are your thoughts on censorship as someone who has faced it first-hand multiple times?
It’s an interesting landscape that we’re in. Our attention is really focused on these issues right now, given the policies and actions of the current administration. But I do think it’s important to remind people that this has been an issue for the past decade, and certainly longer than that. And in many ways, I think of Drag Story Hour as a canary in the coal mine—we were under attack pretty much from the beginning, and the tenor of that has shifted. At first it was maybe a heckler at an event, maybe a very small group of protesters, usually fairly polite and just kind of registering their disapproval. And then, more and more protests started happening. There were attempts to shut down or defund initiatives at school board , library board, or local city council meetings. And then it kept escalating to the point where state legislatures were starting to introduce legislation, in some cases, to even criminalize any drag in front of a child. We started seeing really violent white nationalist neo-Nazi groups protesting events and threatening us in much more frightening ways. And now all these politicians at the national level, attacking people like me and other drag performers, and also using this as kind of leverage or the basis to try to defund and take over your beloved arts and media institutions, ranging from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to NPR and PBS.
Personally, my books have been challenged and banned in some cases. I recently learned that my first book, The Hips On The Drag Queen Go, Swish, Swish, Swish, was the 15th most challenged book, which is something, in some ways, I wear as a badge of honor. But it’s frustrating to think that a piece of creative expression that is meant to bring joy and understanding, levity and play to the world receives this level of pushback.
What is one thing you wish people knew about Drag Story Hour?
We don’t really have an agenda beyond creating joyful events that promote a love of reading and that encourage kids to be themselves and love each other and their communities. Again, I’m not so naive as to think that isn’t taking a political stand. In many ways, I celebrate the kind of political and cultural interventions that we do, but I don’t think that we’re actually in a culture war. That framing is one sided: it’s the political right trying to ruffle everyone’s feathers and make something out of nothing. I’m trying to make the world a better and safer place—a more equitable place—for everyone to live in. But that’s not a war, that’s being a human. If people want to say, “that’s not for me, that’s not for my kids,” I get it. But to try to take that away from everyone else is what censorship is.
Censorship is fundamentally un-American in principle, but also deeply American in that there are so many examples of it throughout our history. But constitutionally, in our rights to free expression, the right is not to say something that everyone agrees with—it’s to speak your mind. There’s something that feels especially insidious about trying to censor someone that you disagree with. There are plenty of things that people say that I find offensive, hateful, unethical, abhorrent, and there might be opportunities where I would not give them a platform myself; but I’m not trying to wield the power of the government to shut them down. It just feels so contradictory and hypocritical given the right’s discourse around freedom and liberty.
What would you like to say about the Marjorie Taylor Greene incident?
The silver lining that I take away is that there are all these pictures of me: larger than life, held up behind her, looking gorgeous and happy as ever, and she’s scowling at the joy that I’m bringing. And on a political level, I think her reaction is shameful.
This incident is part of a broader pattern that’s not only about censorship of individual works (and especially works by LGBTQ and BIPOC creators) but it’s also about defunding important public services and public infrastructure—not just public media, public libraries, and public education, but also public health care, social security, and the broader safety net. One of the dangers of this moment where we are facing so many attacks and challenges is to start to feel like, “Oh, well, that one’s not as important, or that’s not serious, that’s a distraction.” And it is true that there are certain material realities that are incredibly urgent: people being deported, people dying for lack of health care, and it is all part of the same drive towards power. But I think that some of these things, like attacks on drag, that we might uncomfortably laugh off as minor are actually very fundamental to our ability to think freely, to reason, to critique institutions, to imagine a better future.
In some ways, what the right knows very well is that they need to attack our sources of knowledge, our sources of creativity, because that is what prevents us from fighting back. It’s part of a long history of fascist and authoritarian playbooks to go after artists, intellectuals, educators, and minoritized groups—but really going after people who think and express themselves is a key part of that. It’s disappointing.
The last thing I’ll say is that, unfortunately, this is exactly where Marjorie Taylor Greene got her start politically. Before she was elected to Congress, she would go, often by herself, to protest or film Drag Story Hour events in Georgia (we’ve always had a very active chapter in the Atlanta area). In the hearing, she talks about how if she walked into a room and saw her kids watching me on television, she would become “unglued” and I can’t help but think, “girl, you’ve been unglued!” Watching her videos, she’s really making a mountain out of a molehill. That is all to say: I’m disappointed that this started her political career, and she’s still hawking the same disinformation and hatred. Frankly, it’s boring. To that I say: “Move on and get a new hobby.” But she acts like she’s just discovered it. And the reality is, this has been her schtick all along.
What are some of your favorite books to share and perform?
There are so many great options out there now, here are a few classics (and a new one) that are currently giving me life:
- Tabitha and Magoo Dress Up Too by Michelle Tea, illustrated by Ellis van der Does (Feminist Press): This book is written by one of the founders of Drag Story Hour and tells a story of kids who are visited by an extra-magical drag queen and attend a DSH reading at their local library!
- Kind Like Marsha: Learning from LGBTQ+ Leaders by Sarah Prager, illustrated by Cheryl Thuesday (Running Press Kids): This book presents a kid-friendly entry point to LGBTQ+ history, highlighting the kinds of values we can learn from all sorts of icons.
- ‘Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick, illustrated by Juana Medina (Candlewick): A wonderful introduction to the gay high holiday (Pride!), written in verse, and captures the diversity and proud feelings of our community celebrations.
- The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu (Quill Tree Books): This fierce middle grade debut is written by a fellow Drag Story Hour storyteller sister, and I’m so excited to see more queer and fabulous kids and youth literature at all ages!
- Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine, by Hannah Moushabeck, illustrated by Reem Madooh (Chronicle Books): This book has so much heart (and heartbreak), and serves as a reminder that all of our struggles for justice are intertwined.
