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Lil Miss Hot Mess
Drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess smiles at the camera, posing with her chin resting on her finger. She has light red curly hair, and ironically wears a silver sequin dress with red-white-and-blue sequin stars.
Lil Miss Hot Mess headshot
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)drag queen, professor
Known fordrag activism, Drag Queen Story Hour
Notable workThe Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish; If You're a Drag Queen and You Know It
Websitewww.lilmisshotmess.com

Lil Miss Hot Mess (born c. 1984) is an American drag queen, activist, and children’s book author, known for her work with the #MyNameIs campaign and Drag Queen Story Hour.

Early life and career

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Lil Miss Hot Mess was raised Reform Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah.[1] She began performing in San Francisco in 2008 at The Stud.[2] In 2010, at the age of 26, she threw herself a "Bat Mitzvah x2"[3] and later that year won the inaugural title of Tiara Sensation, hosted by Club Some Thing.

In 2014, Lil Miss Hot Mess co-founded the #MyNameIs campaign alongside other drag performers (including as Sister Roma and Alex U. Inn), as well as LGBTQ and BIPOC activists, sexual violence survivors, and privacy advocates to protest Facebook’s real-name policy.[4] The group met with and protested Facebook leadership, claiming that the platform prevented users from being their authentic selves and maintaining their privacy. In a piece for Salon, Lil Miss Hot Mess wrote:

Facebook imagines itself as a community, but its names policy fails to acknowledge how diverse people experience their everyday lives ... And for many of us who are already on the margins, being able to make these virtual connections—outside regular social structures and where we live—can deeply change our lives ... And if we want a space to be truly authentic accountable to one another, it’s our responsibility to demand that Facebook be accountable to us as well.[5]

In 2017, Lil Miss Hot Mess appeared on Saturday Night Live as a backup dancer for Katy Perry, with a group of drag and ballroom performers including Indya Moore, Brita Filter, Scarlet Envy, and Vivacious.[6]

Lil Miss Hot Mess also appeared in a 2020 Biden-Harris campaign video to the tune of "America the Beautiful."[7]

Outside of her drag career, Lil Miss Hot Mess is a university professor, and she holds a PhD from NYU.[8] She has published in academic journals on subjects like “drag pedagogy” and digital drag performance.[9]

Drag Queen Story Hour

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In 2016, Lil Miss Hot Mess became involved for Drag Queen Story Hour as one of the first queens to read for the group in New York City.[10] She has since performed Drag Queen Story Hour readings at venues like the Brooklyn Public Library,[11] Institute for Contemporary Arts Los Angeles,[12] and HBO’s Human By Orientation digital platform.[13]

In 2020, she published a children’s book called The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, illustrated by Olga de Dios and published by Running Press Kids.[14] The book received positive reviews, including Kirkus Reviews, which described it as “a fun, movement-filled, family-friendly celebration of drag.”[15] In an interview, Lil Miss Hot Mess described her goal behind writing the book as:

The book grew out of my work with Drag Queen Story Hour ... There’s no “Drag 101,” but it gets them swishing and shimmying and twirling, so they can embody and celebrate some of the things queens do.[16]

The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish was also featured as a favorite by Jesse Tyler Ferguson on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as a book he likes to read to his son.[17][18]

In 2021, Lil Miss Hot Mess read The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish in a segment of the television show Let’s Learn, produced by New York City PBS affiliate WNET and the New York City Department of Education. The segment stirred controversy among right-wing groups that frequently target Drag Queen Story Hour, and who took issue with her suggestion that “I think we might have some drag queens in training on our hands.”[19][20][21] PBS eventually took down the segment from its main website, however it is available on the local affiliate’s YouTube channel.[22]

In May 2022, as Drag Queen Story Hour came under increased attacks from conservatives, Senator Marco Rubio specifically criticized Lil Miss Hot Mess’s Hips book referring to it as “sexually charged content.”[23] In response, Lil Miss Hot Mess was outspoken in defending her work,[24][25][26][27] describing these and similar remarks as “an attack not only on freedom of expression but on imagination,”[28] and writing that, “if there is anything that drag performers and kids can learn from each other, it is to get in touch with one’s inner curiosity, conscience and creativity.”[29]

Also in May 2022, Lil Miss Hot Mess published her second children’s book If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It.

In April 2024, Lil Miss Hot Mess led a Queer Storytime for Palestine in Northampton, Massachusetts, and instructed the children to chant "Free Palestine", dress in Palestinian attire and waive the Palestinian flag and the transgender flag. Organizations such as StopAntisemitism raised concerns of indoctrination.

References

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  1. ^ Ingall, Marjorie (2016-09-09). "Lil Miss Hot Mess Makes a Great Children's Storyteller". Tablet. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  2. ^ Villarreal, Daniel. "Rising queen Lil Miss Hot Mess on how drag upsets the status quo". LGBTQ Nation. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  3. ^ Ingall, Marjorie (9 September 2016). "Lil Miss Hot Mess Makes a Great Children's Storyteller". Tablet. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  4. ^ Safronova, Valeriya (24 September 2014). "Drag Performers Fight Facebook's 'Real Name' Policy". New York Times. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  5. ^ Lil Miss Hot Mess (31 March 2015). "Say my name: Facebook's unfair "real names" policy continues to harm vulnerable users". Salon. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  6. ^ Renzi, Dan (22 May 2017). "We identified the performers in Katy Perry's 'Swish Swish' on SNL". Queerty. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  7. ^ "The Queer Moments of the Biden-Harris "America the Beautiful" Video". Mombian. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. ^ Meltzer, Marisa (14 November 2016). "Kids Attend Drag Queen Story Hour". The New Yorker.
  9. ^ Keenan, Harper; Hot Mess, Lil Miss (2020). "Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood". Curriculum Inquiry. 50 (5): 440–461. doi:10.1080/03626784.2020.1864621. S2CID 232093216.
  10. ^ Villarreal, Daniel (5 November 2018). "Drag queens are more political than ever. Can they lead a movement?". Vox. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  11. ^ AP Archives (21 May 2017). "NY Library Brings Drag Queens to Kids Story Hour". YouTube. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Drag Queen Story Hour with Lil' Miss Hot Mess". ICA LA. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  13. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (15 June 2020). "HBO's Human By Orientation Launches Inaugural 'Pride' Site To Amplify And Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Voices". Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  14. ^ Baume, Matt (5 May 2020). "Read Me: This New Book Teaches Kids How to Swish, Snap, and Twirl Like a Drag Queen". them. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  15. ^ "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  16. ^ Rotter, Joshua (5 May 2020). "A Drag Queen Story Hour star and activist publishes her own kids' book". 48 Hills. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  17. ^ TheEllenShow (9 March 2021). "Jesse Tyler Ferguson Is 'Raising His Son Gay Until He Decides He's Straight'". YouTube. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  18. ^ Cook, Michael (14 March 2021). "Jesse Tyler Ferguson Jokes That He's "Raising His Son Gay" To Ellen". Instinct Magazine. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  19. ^ Morris, Seren (21 May 2021). "Backlash Over Drag Queen Story Time on PBS Station for Children Aged 3 to 8". Newsweek. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  20. ^ Kelleher, Patrick (20 May 2021). "Drag queen teaches kids how to 'feel fabulous inside our own bodies' on national TV". Pink News. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  21. ^ Schonter, Allison (20 May 2021). "PBS Children's Show Faces Criticism for Supporting Drag Queen Segment". PopCulture. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  22. ^ WNET Education (20 August 2021). "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by Lil Miss Hot Mess". YouTube. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  23. ^ Ring, Trudy (June 2022). "Pride Drag Story Hour Canceled After Marco Rubio Calls It 'Sexually Charged'". Advocate. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  24. ^ CBC Radio. "How drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess is empowering kids to find their inner sparkle in a safe queer space". CBC. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  25. ^ Dhenin, Marianne (30 June 2022). "Drag Queens in the Classroom Teach Inclusion and Fun, Offering a World of Imagination". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  26. ^ Marks, Andrea (16 June 2022). "Drag Queen Story Hour Isn't Going Anywhere — But It's Getting Serious About Safety". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  27. ^ Rudolph, Dana (28 June 2022). "This Drag Queen Has a Message For Hateful Republicans Banning Minors From Drag Storytimes". Pride Source. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  28. ^ Hot Mess, Lil Miss (20 June 2022). "Drag Queens won't be cowed by haters. The story hour goes on". NBC News. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  29. ^ Hot Mess, Lil Miss (7 July 2022). "I'm A Drag Queen Who Reads To Kids. Haters Call It 'Indoctrination' — Here's What They're Really Learning". Retrieved 6 August 2022.
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