Sasha Colby Breaks Down Her Transition Journey, Pageant Life & Becoming a Drag Race Legend

Everyone's like, what is one advice,

if you could give someone who wants to break into drag?

Do it.

Do it when you're not good.

Do it at the clubs and embarrass yourself

in front of everyone and you get read,

and that's how you figure it out.

We only read the ones we love, darling.

[beep] Hey, I'm Sasha Colby,

and today I'm taking a look back

at some of the moments that have shaped

my career and my identity.

This is Becoming Sasha Colby.

Drag kind of came naturally, I guess you could say,

to someone like me.

It was kind of my first, like, therapy

or, like, safe space to go to.

Being more than half Hawaiian,

I don't look it. [laughs]

So already being queer,

very flamboyantly feminine,

being light skinned and then a weird church kid, [laughs]

school was like a minefield for me, I must say. [laughs]

Being queer, you find your friends.

You find the other queer kids and the allies.

I had so many girls that, like, allowed me

to live a girl experience and we would play, like, pretend

or dress up on the jungle gym.

We would play, like, Sailor Moon

and I got to be Sailor Venus.

So I was already finding my space

that allow people to let me

feel the most comfortable in my skin.

Like, the first experience of understanding my transness

would have to be in high school.

I never really had, like, a coming out.

Like, it was, I was closeted because of religion

and then immediately, I say, I'm gonna be a girl

as soon as I graduated high school.

But the reason why I knew that I wanted to so quickly

was I met my drag mom,

who's an amazing trans woman

and her friends who are now like my drag aunties,

my trans aunties.

And it was those women that I got to see

have healthy relationships with their families

and with, you know, significant others.

And they had a career,

and they were functioning people in society,

which is not what the media or the government

likes to paint for us.

So when I realized that there was a, like,

a really safe space and you could still be successful,

I was like, sign me up.

The wild thing is that drag

and me transitioning were hand-in-hand.

It kind of happened all in the same time.

I grew up in the dance studio,

so I was dancing in high school.

And that was like my gay awakening.

I met, you know, my first friends

who are still my friends to this day.

They showed me my first drag show, which happened to be

mostly trans performers in them,

which is very common in Hawaii.

So really transitioning and doing drag

kind of all flowed together for my experience.

[light music] [crowd cheering]

So like I said, I was in dance

and you know, we were always down for a good competition.

We actually used to, like, dance

for the Miss Hawaii pageants.

And I found that, like, pageants, you know,

because before drag race,

if you wanted to be in the drag world and make a living,

you had to do pageants.

So I found that as my way to still be able to perform

and use all the things that I learned through dance

while still maintaining my queerness.

I soon after ran for Miss Hawaii Continental

was my first prelim for Miss Continental.

I was 21 years old, brand new baby,

and was able to win the prelim

and then go to the nationals where I placed fifth place,

which is insane for the first timer and so young.

I did make quite a bit of waves there.

And that kind of just gave me a lot of momentum

to have a lot of eyes on me.

And I'm a Leo, so I like them. I like an audience.

Okay, let's keep going.

[light music]

Is that Sasha Colby?

Period.

Walking into the workroom was wild

because like, it's, like, Drag Race.

You're turning that corner

and then you feel people that,

like, are your, you know, fellow competitors

and your contemporaries and they already know who you are.

It makes you feel old. That's what it makes me feel like.

[Sasha laughing]

Iconic. Iconic.

When they call me legendary, that's just nice for old.

[Sasha laughing]

Your first entrance look is so important

because that's kind of your brand.

It's like what your first snapshot

if someone to was to say, who are you?

I'm the first native Hawaiian to ever get on the show,

which is such an honor.

So for me to literally walk in

with my ancestors, with these tattoos,

you know, I had the Hawaiian Islands actually on my thigh

to show where I'm from.

And in Hawaiian culture, we have a lot of tattoos

and body tattoos and it usually

marks a big point in your life.

And the big thing with Kanaka Maoli, with Hawaiians,

is that we mark those things as a transition

and knowing that we're always all in transition

for our entire life.

And I thought that was really powerful for me

as a trans person to put that out there.

I've been doing drag for about 22 years now,

and Drag Race has been on for about 15 seasons.

It felt really wild to watch your career

that is your passion and also your therapist

and like the love of your life

and like this really special queer thing

to be celebrated and become [laughs]

a monster in pop culture.

Much like myself.

I only auditioned once for Drag Race

and we got on and then we got to win.

And I just take that all as timing.

And I had to wait for a bit for my turn,

for me to also have life and lived life a bit,

and have real life trauma

and, you know, things that build your character

so that when I go on here, I knew it wasn't,

don't take myself too seriously.

That's what Ru always says.

To get on it was really because I saw my daughter,

Kerri Colby, the season before, in season 14.

She was the first person ever to walk in as a trans woman

and not have to come out on the show,

which is really powerful and really beautiful

to see my daughter just blossom and be so hilarious.

And we're both Leos.

And I could not have her be the most famous Colby

so I had to audition.

Sorry, daughter.

Actually, she was the one, she's like,

Ma, they want you. Just submit. [laughs]

And I have a hard time submitting.

By the filming of finale, it became not about me.

It became about what was going on in the world at that time

and the crazy rhetoric going around about trans people

and drag queens and wanting to eradicate us.

I could not actually even focus on the finale

and trying to, like, win a competition.

I was focused about our livelihood.

And I was actually really angry about it.

And what is the best form of protest? Drag.

So I figured I would use myself as a protest

and do what naturally comes to me,

saying F off, naked, to the people. [laughs]

[light music]

So I am going on tour,

on my first nationwide one woman show.

And you know, I just,

I had a really good time this past year.

I had a really great reign, and I'm enjoying all the perks,

but really what I wanna do with this privilege and platform

is do my art and create.

And a lot of people just think that this just happened.

Like I just, you know, came out as mother,

but there's so many people that mothered me

and gave me all the knowledge that I can be able

to be successful and of use now.

And I really wanna pay honor to that.

And I really wanna honor the new generation of drag

in whatever shape and form that is.

And I'm actually having an open call

for all those 22 cities.

If you're a local drag performer, up and coming,

have not been on stage very often,

have not had opportunities to do drag in your city,

here's a chance for you to perform with me on my own tour.

Looking for drag kings, looking for non-binary,

looking for AFAB queens, looking for everyone.

I wanna see good drag.

[light music]

I love telling stories and that's what I hope to be doing

5, 10, 20 years from now.

Hopefully with a few awards.

But really just being able to use this opportunity

to be that little kid again.

That little kid who locked herself up in her room,

in her bathroom, and got into drag without even knowing

that it would save her life a few times.

It would give her a life and a career

and allow a lot of people, through my pain

and queerness, to relate to me

and feel empowered after watching me.

If I could go back in time, I would say,

Sugar, honey, you did it, babe.

Well, everyone, thank you so much

for hanging out with me today.

This has been Becoming Sasha Colby.