Before high school, Eureka O'Hara would describe herself as a lonely child. She found safety in TV and movies, which is how she first discovered drag. "I started doing drag when 'Drag Race' first came out, and I loved Nina Flowers and BeBe Zahara Benet in that first season," she says. Of course, as she evolved, so did her look. "When I first came on the scene as a drag queen in the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' realm, I was very pageant drag, and big-girl glamour. But I feel like the edginess and the more exciting, sexier looks were very inspired by… the bigger queens of 'Drag Race.' The camp of Ginger Minj, and the confidence of Latrice Royale, and the sassiness of Darienne Lake —all of these big girl queens on the show kind of created Eureka the Elephant Queen."
As for her transformation, O'Hara can break it down into three stages: the environment in which she gets ready, the lashes ("your makeup is never fully done until you have the lashes," she says) and the regalia, which includes the body, hair, and wardrobe. "As queer guys especially, we grow up in a realm of 'men are supposed to hide that femininity, that glamour, that edge.' Drag is pulling out everything you wish you could present to the world, but the rules of society say you can't. So it transforms you into the best version of yourself."
