The magical connection between drag queens and kids

Courtesy of DQSHNYC

In the past six years, drag queens have conquered a different and very young audience in New York. Instead of grown-up gay men devoted to pop music and reality show competitions, they are now showing their art to curious kids who are still learning to read. This happened thanks to the Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), a project brought to the city by Rachel Aimee. 

"Kids love to dress up, and they have a fluid concept of gender until adults teach them otherwise, so it makes perfect sense that kids love and look up to drag artists," says Rachel, who is the executive director of DQSH NYC. Their main mission is to introduce children from ages 3 and 8 to the magic of drag, celebrating a more diverse and welcoming world. "It's so important for the next generation of kids to have queer role models and to celebrate differences instead of being afraid or mocking people who are different from them."

Courtesy of DQSHNYC

Rachel decided to create the New York version of drag queen storytelling after being first introduced to the original project in San Francisco in 2016. "I reached out to one of the organizers, Juliana Delgado Lopera, to ask if I could organize a DQSH event in New York City. At the time, my daughter was really into princesses, and I wanted her and other kids of all genders to have fabulous role models who celebrated dressing up and all things sparkly without the gender conformity that comes with mainstream princess culture". 

At one of the first events organized by DQSH in New York, Rachel fell in love with "seeing the magical connection between drag artists and kids." Nowadays, they promote an average of 200 events with over 4000 children a year. 

Courtesy of DQSHNYC

"Kids and parents love the program! Younger kids have questions like "why is your hair blue?" or "why is your ring so big?" Parents often want book recommendations or recommendations about how to talk about gender with kids." 

Because of the parents' curiosity, DQSH released The Dragtivity Book created by Mor Erlich, who is behind the Sez Me, an acclaimed LGBTQ multidisciplinary educational program for all ages. Recently, they also started promoting storytelling for teenagers who are also very curious about queer culture. "They often have questions about what it's like to be a drag artist and to be queer, and about coming out to family and things like that."

Rachel is now promoting a new fundraiser to help DQSH fund free programs in New York City public schools. You can click here to learn how to help them!

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Courtesy of DQSHNYC

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