Quotes from Alyssa Edwards

I sometimes feel like it's my world and everyone is just visiting.

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.

I used to focus so much on winning. I used to be such a perfectionist.

Every performer will have a bad night. It's just inevitable.

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?'

I was waiting for the world to change. I'm no longer waiting; I'm part of that movement. I think our role as performers and entertainers is so much bigger.

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'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.

You don't want people to think, 'Oh, she was a person who was bitter because she didn't win.' You can't always win at everything.

I think when someone is so passionate about what they do, sometimes emotions come to the top, and you just get to that boiling point where you have to let it out.

Don't be anything you're not. Be yourself. And people will either celebrate that or say, 'It's not for me.'

I'm kind of living a Bruce Wayne life and then morphing into Batman, but I'm glad now Batman comes out during the day. That's kind of like how drag was: we were called upon at night to make people smile and laugh and clap.

I am a business owner. I'm a teacher. I think Justin's actually kind of plain, kind of nerdy. But when I morph into Alyssa, I'm like this... Well, this creature, everything that Justin couldn't be.

I think what happened is I learned my strengths, but more importantly, I learned to embrace my weaknesses.

Positivity attracts positivity.

During the day, I'm a business owner. I'm a teacher and a mentor.

When you fight for something, you fight the good fight. You go for it, you never stop. You get knocked down, and you get right back up. That's what we need to be teaching these kids. For that matter, even some adults.

This whole idea of editing, not one time I can tell you, not one time has a producer ever asked me to say something I did not want to say. I will also say this about 'Drag Race' producers: I will stand by the show and the people there because they have changed so many people's lives for the better, and I'm one of them.

I remember going to the first ever DragCon, and I know this sounds crazy, but I've never experienced a ComicCon or anything like that of this nature. So it was a full carnival of extravaganza. I was a little bit more prepared the second year because I was excited to see everything.

I had to find the courage to share not only myself but my art with the world. I faced fear, and I went for it. I wasn't a failure, and I'm very proud of myself.

I think that people are looking beyond the wig. I think they are saying, This isn't just a costume; there's a person behind this. If this costume, this character, this person has this kind courage? Why don't we share that?

If I put on a T-shirt that says 'YAAAS,' I want to mean it.

My kids stand out at competitions. They're products of me. And you can't come to Beyond Belief and have a flamboyant teacher like me and be basic.

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.