On March 22, just four short weeks ago, RuPaul’s Drag Race launched its 10th season, and in those first 90 minutes, we got the entire season arc of one Vanessa Vanjie Mateo. The first decade of Drag Race has a litany of first queens out. Charismatic, unique, nervy, talented ladies who nonetheless never made much of a mark on the series. Sure, Victoria “Porkchop” Parker resurfaces at every reunion, with pride of placement as the first-ever first out, and we’ll get to the Shangela example in a bit, but the Penny Trations and Jaymes Mansfields and Alisa Summerses of the Drag Race universe tend to fade out of memory.

That was never going to be the fate of Miss Vanjie.

From the moment she stomped into the workroom, Vanjie — the drag daughter of season 3 finalist Alexis Mateo — made her presence felt. While her style might have been rough around the edges, her personality scored 10s across the board. Loud enough to be heard above the din of a 14-queen cross-talk, with a big and brassy personality, Vanjie was a complete hit. “Like a hooker on Rodeo Drive,” she said, describing her drag. “She’s kinda ghetto, but, you know, kinda eloquence.” She must’ve been a story editor’s dream, because no matter where the episode went, they could cut away to a Vanjie talking head that would leave the audience in stitches. She was just the splash of water the Drag Race faithful needed after a bruising All-Stars 3. Alas, her drag-on-a-dime look in the opening challenge couldn’t quite cut it (her flower dress featured beautiful pink colors and the silhouette of a gum ball), and after an unsuccessful lip sync, it was time for Vanjie to sashay away. And that’s when things really got interesting.

I’m not sure even an exit as singular as this one would have become the breakout meme it became for just any queen, but the fandom was SO not ready to let Vanjie go yet, and so her sad, wistful, fading-into-the-mists-of-Avalon exit became all the excuse we needed to turn the first queen eliminated into the First Lady of Memes on Twitter.

In a season that is not lacking for memorable queens — truly, season 10 might be the strongest collection of queens the show has ever had — Vanessa Vanjie Mateo has become the unquestioned breakout star. She hasn’t even properly exited season 10, as every episode so far has featured the queens repeating her “VAAAAANJIE” exit line. A friend of mine at the time joked that Vanjie was putting a curse on the runway as she exited it. Thus far, that story has borne out, particularly if the curse was to have the entire gay community chanting her name at all times.

Which brings us back to the Shangela example. Shangela debuted on season 2 as an unpolished personality queen who was bounced first for her unfinished aesthetic. She was brought back the next season as a surprise contestant and made it all the way to 5th place, cementing herself as one of the signature queens in Drag Race lore. And if you ask a majority of Drag Race fans who should have won the just-completed All-Stars 3, they’d have said Shangela. Since Vanjie is the only other first-queen-out to pop as loudly as Shangela did, the drumbeat has been to bring her back for season 11 and give her a chance to really compete. I am here to say that this is the last thing that either Vanjie or RuPaul should want.

While the thrill of the competition is still so strong on Drag Race, the reality of the situation has long been that on a professional level, just being on the show is a huge career bump for queens. And while it’s true that lasting longer on the show means more air time, more fans and followers, and a higher booking quote, I will defy you to name another queen in the last several seasons to have gotten the kind of notoriety bump that Vanjie has gotten. Drag clubs have got to be falling all over themselves to book her. Summer Pride parades will be awash in “Miss VANJIE!” chants. The lines to take a photo with her at the next Drag Con are going to be insane.

Returning as a contestant for season 11 can only tarnish that one perfect moment of Drag Race immortality. As the likes of Cynthia Lee Fontaine or this season’s Eureka O’Hara can attest, returning to the show a year later is no guarantee of runaway success. Vanessa Vanjie would be running a huge risk of deflating her brand by coming back. And Drag Race would risk losing the cachet of its most enigmatic personality.

Which isn’t to say that Miss Vanjie should walk backwards and out of the Drag Race life altogether. The show should be looking for any way it can to use her: give her a segment at the reunion; give her a web series on WOW Presents; Invite her back as a permanent talking-head to comment on the events of each episode; hell, find a way to get her cast as a Meghan McCain replacement on The View. I want much, much more Vanjie in my life. But she doesn’t need to compete on Drag Race anymore. In a way, she’s already won this season. She’s gained fans and followers and most importantly name value; she’s got that springboard that could jump her to her next level of fame, if she chooses to use it. However it shakes out, we’ll be repeating her name for a very long time.

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