In My Beauty, fashion and culture’s most compelling faces reveal in their own words what beauty means to them
It takes balls to jump on stage and strut your heart out in a jaw-dropping drag performance. Scratch that – no balls required. Georgie Bee is the queen disrupting drag with an unexpected distinction: she’s a woman. Using the stage to be her most spectacular and theatrical self, she’s helping open up the scene for performers of all genders, races and sizes. Last summer, Georgie snagged Miss Sink the Pink, London’s most coveted crown for queens, by taking on all the viciousness of cats in heat with her Pedigree Pussy act – complete with four kitten Beanie Babies attached to her four paste-on nipples. A shoe designer who carries the panache of her drag persona into everyday life, Georgie teaches us a few things about confidence, originality and discovering your most dazzling self.
“I think as a girl, drag is a lot harder because there’s this subconscious idea that it’s easier for a woman. A lot of people say, ‘It’s so much easier for you because you’re already a girl.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s actually a lot harder.’ Because I’m not trying to be a girl. I’m trying to be a genderfuck girl. I like to confuse people, but it’s difficult if you already look quite feminine. There’s also an unspoken pressure…when you’re a woman, you need to make fireworks come out of your ass for people to think you’re good!”
“There’s so much artistry in drag. You can’t just slap on a dress anymore. It’s a real art and I still get it wrong sometimes. I think of drag and beauty as so open to anything and absolutely any kind of new ideas. You can have ridiculous opulence; you can have the reincarnation of a character from years ago.”
“Beauty is really about how you perceive yourself ¬– a feeling within, not about how other people perceive you. Makeup, in particular, gives you a window into another part of yourself.”
“Beauty is really about how you perceive yourself ¬– a feeling within, not about how other people perceive you. Makeup, in particular, gives you a window into another part of yourself. If you have the opportunity to try something new with some new makeup and you see a different look on yourself, it can be really exciting. You may discover, ‘Oh, I know this person! This is really me.’ It’s very exciting to have the freedom to create something like that.”
“I have one-inch long holographic glitter nails on now, and they’re really pointy and really hard to work with! Inside my ears, there’s always blue or pink glitter. People always tell me, ‘You’ve got something in your ear.’ It’s always glitter. And if you paint any part of your face pink or red, it stays pink or red. It just dyes your skin. So that’s fun; people ask me why I look like I’ve been punched in the face.”
“When I’m designing shoes, I don’t like to look at trends or magazines or celebrities because I’d feel like I’m not creating something and not really trying hard enough. The same goes with drag. I don’t really try to look like anyone! I’m just really trying to figure out what I like for myself. There are people I really like, obviously, but I don’t try to dress like them or do my face like them. There’s no harm in wanting to look like someone or recreate a look, but I’m not doing drag to be someone else or look like someone else. I’m doing it to have a different side to myself and find out something different about myself. It’s a very self-indulgent thing!“
“I really like people knowing I’m a woman; I love being a woman! And if people want to be confused by me, that’s great ¬– I love that too.”
“Nudity has never been a weird thing for me. I was never ever told to be ashamed of any part of myself, which is really amazing. I’ve gone through a lot of stages – when I was 16, I had no eyebrows and I drew them on crazy and nobody said anything! I was never told I should hide any part of me if I wanted to show it and I’ve always felt better without clothes on. I feel like an old-school nudist… clothes really trap me! I also really like people knowing I’m a woman; I love being a woman! And if people want to be confused by me, that’s great ¬– I love that too.”
“The secret to amazing drag is just performing the hell out of it and feeling really good! If you feel amazing and you’re emanating this confidence and power, people love it. They just go crazy. You only do a great job when you’re feeling great. There is one thing I always want to say to all the promoters and club owners out there: find your local drag queens of colour and book them! Because there needs to be more diversity in drag.”
“To me, confidence comes from being mindful of your surroundings and aware of what is being sold to you. Don’t read those magazines that say on one page, ‘Body confidence is everything! Curvy is back!’ and have a diet plan on the next. If you read conflicting shit like that, of course your confidence is going to be fucked up. So, I think confidence is all about being mindful about how YOU feel. Are you being sold something that is making you feel like shit? Just be aware and mindful and don’t take any bullshit. Be careful that you’re not being pigeonholed into something. Be accepting of who you really are.”