Canada’s Drag Race season 2 winner Icesis Couture has opened up about the realisation she had about herself that made her feel ‘free’, after speaking out about her mental health on the series.
In the grand finale, Icesis stormed to victory against finalists Kendall Gender and Pythia, with all of her hard work, versatile drag and dedication to being herself ending with her taking the title of Canada’s Next Drag Superstar.
The queen had a rollercoaster ride, winning on two occasions and lip syncing twice, before wowing on the catwalk with her breathtaking Coronation Eleganza look for the final runway.
Following her victory, Icesis spoke to Metro.co.uk about what she learnt about herself while competing on the series.
Before the show began, she spoke to producers about her life, saying that she wasn’t comfortable speaking on camera about certain aspects of her past and her childhood.
However, when it came to the makeover episode, where the remaining queens created prom-inspired looks for five fabulous queer teens, Icesis talked about previously feeling alone and her mental health struggles, outlining how doing so helped make her feel ‘liberated’.
‘I thought I knew everything about myself. I never realised me not sharing my story with anyone was the last step I needed to take,’ Icesis said.
‘Drag Race helped me push myself to take that last step, so I feel so liberated, I feel so free. I feel like I finally reached the last stop that I needed to do to just let all of that go and use it as something positive that could help myself and other people.’
In the aforementioned episode, Icesis recalled her ‘bad high school experience’, in addition to suffering from bullying at home, with the queen stating that she reached a point ‘where I wanted to end my life’ and consequently received hospital treatment and therapy.
During her conversation with Metro.co.uk, she said that since her heart-to-heart with Michaela, she has been flooded with messages from people who want to share their experiences with her who see her ‘as representation, speaking about mental health’.
‘I did have a meet and greet two weeks ago and two people came to the meet and greet and they had just gotten out of the hospital in the same situation that I had the night before and their first stop out of the hospital was to come see me,’ the Ottawa queen said.
‘I held them and I just cried and it’s just… it’s so difficult being in that situation and to see people smile and see a little bit of light in their eyes, when I didn’t see any of that for myself or anything around me.
‘When they look at me like that, I was like, that’s what I yearn for, so I always want to be that light for people and it means a lot to me.’
Despite landing in the bottom two for the makeover episode, she still ‘loved every aspect of that episode’, as the queens and the teens bonded and expressed their hopes for a better and more inclusive future.
‘It was just so beautiful and it came at the right time and it was just so perfect,’ the performer said.
‘That was literally like my favourite thing in the whole entire world and I was so excited to see it, and I did a viewing party with Michaela and the other kids in the audience and it was just, it was so special. I love those kids so much. That episode just means so much to me and it was amazing.’
As for her own drag, which pushed the envelopes with looks ranging from glam to surreal in the best possible way, Icesis said that she has ‘so much respect for different versions of drag’, because it is ‘so diverse’.
‘All of drag is just so beautiful and I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into one, because there’s something to learn from everything,’ she said.
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Canada’s Drag Race is available to watch on WOW Presents Plus.
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