Lawrence Chaney has had her life turned upside down over the last 18 months. The drag queen went from a relatively unknown performer to a household name and celebrity - while still living in the Gorbals.
As the rest of us excitedly tuned in to RuPaul's Drag Race UK every Thursday in lockdown, Lawrence was at home watching her own anonymity disappear and social media following and mentions go through the roof.
As the series went on, it was clear that the Glasgow queen was perfectly put together on the outside, but on the inside, she was struggling with body issues, self-doubt, and battling her own inner saboteur (as Mama Ru would say). Now also in the public domain, she's had to contend with online trolling and was even forced to take a break from social media while the show was still on the air.
But standing on the stage as the winner of the show, the 24-year-old proved that you can be vulnerable and insecure, but still slay the house down (Boots).
After a whirlwind few months that have included lockdowns, tours, book deals, and a brush with covid, she's drawing on all of her experiences to champion The Body Shop's new Self-Love campaign.
Back home in the Gorbals after a night performing to 2,000 people at Clapham Grand, she discusses what self-love means to her.
"Before I used to think it was something you were born with", she explains.
"What I’ve discovered is that it's actually something you need to actively participate in. It's something that doesn’t always come naturally to you and that doesn’t make you less of a person.
"Some days I wake up and I’m so excited to start the day, but I have days where I wake up and I go 'God, not this, I want to just sit in my bed'. I think my perception goes back and forth as everyone else’s does still.
"I think I really struggled with my self-love growing up. It's a daily job to remind yourself that you are loved, that you are fabulous. Even if it’s just ‘I like the colour of my eyes today in this lighting’. Something so simple, I think we should really get behind gassing each other up a little bit. Uplifting rather than constantly bringing people down."
Drag Race has become an important life raft for the LGBTQ+ community as it allows contestants to share their stories and struggles. Across the USA and UK series, no topic has ever been off the table from HIV diagnosis, family estrangements, sexual assault, and gender identity, helping to normalise taboo issues that are affecting viewers back home.
In the latest series, Lawrence spoke with her fellow queens about her experiences of bullying, body confidence, and romantic relationships and wasn't scared to admit when she was struggling.
Data from The Body Shop’s Global Self-Love Index revealed more than four in ten LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to have low self-love than their cisgender and/or heterosexual peers, with 46% of LGBTQ+ people considering themselves a failure, compared with only 25% of heterosexual people.
The LGBTQ+ community is also known to experience mental health issues at greater rates than non-LGBTQ+ counterparts, with half of those that identify as part of the community suffering from depression in the past year, and two in five experiencing verbal or physical harassment for simply being who they are and for who they love.
Lawrence herself is no stranger to the feeling of failure.
"I remember four months before leaving for Drag Race I dyed my hair pink and I got chased across a bridge by guys on bikes. The sad reality is, queer people have to deal with hate walking down the street holding hands with their partner, they’re already being belittled and feeling cast out by society, so it's easy to get in a rut thinking ‘I'm a weirdo, I’m a failure’.
"Something that has been really groundbreaking for me is surrounding yourself with like-minded people. Even if you're in the middle of rural Scotland, you can surround yourself with your community through TV, music, stuff like that. Surround yourself with positivity.
"We tend to focus a lot of negativity and I think that it’s always good to prepare for the worst. When it comes to self-love, I don’t think it achieves much by focusing on the negatives. You should always be positive - apart from coronavirus.
"When I speak to my friends, a big struggle is right now is a detachment between social media and real-life because social media isn’t real.
"I think we look at a lot of bodies and we judge ourselves based on what we’re seeing in an edited picture of someone. For a lot of people I’m surrounded by, it is good to just turn off your phone for an hour and just appreciate your surroundings. That's your safe space at the end of the day."
While self-love differs from person to person, we can all agree that there are little things we can do to make ourselves feel better whether that's going for a walk, taking a bath, or ordering our favourite takeaway.
For Lawrence, getting a good playlist on works, especially when the stresses of touring are catching up. The drag queen has been on the road with fellow contestants Ellie Diamond, Bimini Bon Boulash, Tayce, and A'Whora since restrictions around live performances were loosened.
"On the physical, I do stretches every day", she says.
"On the mental side of it, I actually have a playlist that I listen to when I’m getting up and often shave and wash my hair to it.
"I listen to music and for me, music is the soundtrack to my life. I love listening to rap, I love listening to ballad music. I just love surrounding myself with other people's emotions and feelings, there’s something quite solidifying there where you get to know other people's stories, you get to hear about their life in song."
Fresh from touring and out of a ropey experience with covid, there's no slowing down for the reigning crown of Drag Race UK.
There's her book that's set to be released, but filming for her upcoming TV show is also set to begin. As well as the title of the drag superstar UK, Lawrence also won her own show with World of Wonder - the theme of which is yet to be announced.
For Glasgow fans, we'll have to wait until December 8 to see her on tour as part of the Purple Reign UK tour.
"I'm so excited to take my comedy fart jokes on the road."
And we can't wait to hear them.
To watch Lawrence and fellow queen Tia Kofi flip the time-honoured Roast tradition on its head and build each other up with affirmations of self-love, and compliments of the highest order, as a reminder of just how fabulous we all are, click here.
