Hawaiian star Sasha Colby, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15, opens up about her origins – from her upbringing in Hawaii and the island lifestyle to her destiny of working in the beauty industry and her love for beauty from a young age, all the way to the kick-off of her Drag career and her first experience in the industry – and more recently, how it feels to win Drag Race. We also get to see a more personal side of Colby when she’s off the stage, getting to know her true story and harsh moments that won’t keep her from dreaming of a big and bright future, a motivation that has made her get her own crown!

TO START OFF, I’D LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR ORIGINS. YOU WERE BORN IN HAWAII, WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP THERE AND WHAT WERE YOUR CHILDHOOD AND TEENAGE YEARS LIKE? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE AN ISLAND GIRL?

Growing up in Hawai’i is paradise. The setting is just beautiful, and Hawai’i is known for having the aloha spirit and you really feel it growing up there. I’m very proud to be a native Hawaiian. I lived right across the street from the beach. I definitely took living there for granted — now I’ve really learned to appreciate how amazing place Hawai’i is. It’s very magical and has strong energy. As far as the people — there are, like any hometown, good parts and bad parts. I had a good experience with Hawai’i in general but growing up was hard because I grew up in a religious family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their teachings were very strict for non-queer people and for queer people, I mean, we don’t even exist to them. So that was hard — knowing that what I naturally felt wasn’t even accepted or acknowledged. But at the same time, growing up was great because I found dance in high school and that’s the thing that made me excited about my future.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED AND INVOLVED IN THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY FROM A YOUNG AGE? WHERE DOES YOUR PASSION COME FROM?

I always liked pretty things. I always liked Disney princesses and princes and would terrorize my younger nieces to do their makeup and hairstyles. It was just a natural thing that I would do, I never really thought anything weird about it, but I think that’s what really shaped my personal style now. I do exactly what I would do to Barbies and to my nieces on me now. I’ve always loved makeup and models and when I was in high school before I started dancing, I was an apprentice at a hair salon trying to see if I wanted to do hair. I was always meant to be in some industry focused on fashion and beauty.

WHEN DID YOU START DOING BEAUTY PAGEANTS AND WHAT ENCOURAGED YOU TO DO IT? TELL US ABOUT THAT TIME WHEN YOU WON MISS CONTINENTAL.

The reason I started doing beauty pageants was that I was at the age when everyone in the dance studio was graduating, and it was time to become a working dancer or go to college to dance. Everyone was doing their thing, but there really wasn’t a space for a trans backup dancer in 2002. So I looked around and saw my opportunities, which were drag pageants, and Miss Continental in particular. For me, winning a pageant would allow me to be a mainland queen and would allow me to be a working queen. It was really a way for me to get out of Hawai’i and make a living. That was a big appeal, besides, of course, winning a crown.

I’M ALSO CURIOUS ABOUT YOUR INITIATION INTO THE DRAG WORLD. HOW DID THAT STORY DEVELOP FOR YOU? WHEN WAS THE FIRST TIME EVER YOU THOUGHT OF DOING DRAG AND WHEN DID IT BECOME A PASSION?

I remember I was a closeted Jehovah’s Witness kid and I was doing dance for survival, but I was really trying to hide my queerness. All my friends in dance were like, “nice try girl”. And they invited me out one night and it felt like one of those coming-of-age movies where the nerdy kid gets to hang out with the cool kids and they’re like, “You’re coming with us tonight, get ready. We’re going to the club. We’re gonna watch a drag show.” That was my first drag show ever and it was probably the best drag show because it just lives in this mythical land for me. It was the 40th birthday celebration of a very popular drag queen in Hawai’i named Aiko, so she had the best of the best of Hawai’i drag. I saw everyone that you needed to know if you wanted to do drag in Hawai’i. I got so inspired by so many trans women that night, and I’m lucky to call a lot of them my friends to this day. I walked into that club and immediately felt seen and watching the show I just felt like I had to get on the stage. 

PEOPLE MIGHT KNOW YOU FOR YOUR ICONIC MOMENTS ON THE 15TH SEASON OF RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. FOR YOU, WHICH WERE YOUR PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT MOMENTS AND HOW DID YOU ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE?

I’ve really had a great time throughout this whole process for Drag Race. I’m really amazed at the reception and how people supported me in this competition. I really have had a wonderful time, but I’ve also kept my head down and don’t look at comments and just keep it moving and keep creating and living in the moment. Ru was great, everyone was so nice. I mean there are so many great moments and I love all the girls – we’re all still close friends. I loved the Heaven scene when I played God and the neck crack moment, making Ru laugh that hard is a proud moment; you can really put that as a feather in your cap if you can make her really cackle. I really liked the Granny; I liked the old lady group. I thought that was so much fun because I didn’t have to be Sasha Colby. It’s funny because you’re in a disguise – you can be this agent of chaos on stage.

HOW DID YOUR TIME IN DRAG RACE CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

I mean, it’s changed everything in my life. It makes me teary to talk about it because I’m getting sentimental. Being able to say that I had the success I had in my career before Drag Race is something I’m very grateful for. But the level that Drag Race can take you, the places that it can take you to visit, and the people you can touch, it’s so wild and overwhelming in the best way. It gives us all an opportunity to make our wildest dreams come true. Just being on the show, you can really make the most of it. I’m so excited about the future.

BESIDES DRAG AND BEAUTY, WHAT MAKES SASHA COLBY SPECIAL? TELL US ABOUT YOUR PASSIONS, AMBITIONS IN LIFE, FUTURE PLANS, AND ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE.

Sasha Colby really enjoys the spotlight, but she also really enjoys downtime to nurture herself so she can be this persona on stage. I’m literally walking art all the time, so anything I want to do I could do. I’m excited to do music. I’m excited to tour the world. I’m excited to do a one-woman show that I could write out. I’m excited to do movies and television. I’m excited to work with other Drag Race alumni. I’m also excited to not even know what’s about to happen — the runways and the fashion weeks and the magazines — bring it on. 

LASTLY, WHAT LIFE ADVICE DO YOU THINK HAS CHANGED YOU THE MOST? FOR YOU, WHAT’S THE KEY TO LIVING A FULL LIFE?

Some life advice that I often linger on is “don’t block your blessings”. Many times, we’ll dream, and we’ll dream aloud and then reality will hit us because our mind wants to make sense of this dream. Usually, this bite of reality will take us out of the dream and then we start to block our blessings and that doesn’t help us achieve anything. So, I try to stay as positive and open as I can at all times and never talk myself out of a dream that I want.