I think I have an even deeper gratitude and understanding of how difficult and lucky it is to hit gold twice in one lifetime. RuPaul

WU: I have to say, one thing that has remained relatively unchanged about you is your look. You still look like you did in ’93, which is pretty amazing. The other day, we were watching the show, and the makeup is just so fierce—we were like, “How does she do it?” Do you use makeup? Is it the concealer you’re using? Whatever it is, I need to look it up …RUPAUL: [laughs] Mathu is really amazing at what he does. He does my hair, my makeup, and he does all the imagery. So there really is no secret. We keep doing what we do. But I love to laugh, and I keep my spiritual base, and I stay positive. I like to look on the bright side. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a dark side—I have that. That’s a constant. But I always look on the bright side, and I think that what ends up happening is that the face that you get is the face that you develop or that you deserve. It’s a cliché, but I think that who you are on the inside shows on your face.WU: I think what you’re doing is great. I feel like there are kids who are excited about doing drag again. For a while, during the years that you took a break, I thought drag was almost done. You didn’t see it so much. But now I feel like there’s another celebration of it happening. To me, it’s less about drag coming back than just people doing whatever the hell they want to do, you know? Now people feel like they can do that, whereas just a few short years ago, it didn’t feel like you could.RUPAUL: Right—there was a certain closed-mindedness. And drag is more than just wanting to dress like a woman. Drag has everything to do with being a shape-shifter, and feeling free enough to try all the colors and not be limited by other people’s opinions. So when drag is happening, it means that we, as a people, are open to exploration.WU: I’ve always thought that when you see more drag queens out here, then you can really take some more chances because it’s always a sign that the world is a better place.RUPAUL: Absolutely. It’s like Groundhog Day. When the drag queen sticks her head out of the ground …WU: Yes. When you see Lady Bunny pop up, you really know things are good. I think I saw her coming out of the ground the other day, in fact.RUPAUL: [laughs] You know, I’ve known Bunny since 1982.WU: Tell me about that relationship. You guys obviously still have a very close relationship—he’s a mentor on Drag U. But he’s somebody who’s been in your life for a long time.RUPAUL: We also have a new single out that’s called “Lick It Lollipop.” But I love to laugh, and Bunny is the funniest person I’ve ever met—really. So smart and so funny. And over the years, she’s just gotten better. In fact, she’s actually gotten more chill over the years. But I love her. I think she’s so, so brilliant.WU: How is it working now with so many of the same people that you became very successful with, like Mathu and Bunny and Michelle Visage? Does it feel like a big old reunion?RUPAUL: It’s so great because we get to do this shorthand vernacular where we use key words, benchmark words where we don’t have to say the whole sentence. Sometimes it’s even just a look and we understand what the other person is saying. I’ve also worked with Randy [Barbato] and Fenton [Bailey] from World of Wonder for many years—since 1986. They did my show on VH1 in the ’90s, and they do this one. We’ve done everything together. Even Tom Campbell, who is the main writer and one of the executive producers—I’ve known him for many, many years. I tell this to young people all the time: You have to create your comrades and you have to go out and meet your contemporaries because you’ll be working with these people for the rest of your life.WU: Your costumes on the show are always amazing—there are sequins and feathers, gowns and leather corsets. And then the hair is always fab. Is coming up with those outfits that fun? What’s that process like?RUPAUL: It’s crazy. I can get away with a lot of things because I’m huge and skinny and because it’s television. Zaldy goes outrageous. Mathu also goes outrageous—you know, for years, his goal is to make my hair the biggest it could possibly be. So we just have a lot of fun. We know there are a lot of pundits out there who are looking to see what we’re going to do next, so the challenge is to do something outrageous and to use color—I’ve never been afraid of colors. I think I can wear every color.WU: I think you have worn every single color. I was so excited to be talking to you today. I was like, “I haven’t spoken to Ru in so long!” It’s been too long.RUPAUL: I don’t get to New York as often as I used to. I still have my place there, but I only get there three or four times a year.WU: The show is filmed in California.RUPAUL: In L.A. We just finished season six last week.WU: Any previews? Any teasers? Or are you going to make me wait until January?RUPAUL: Well, you have to wait until early 2014, but I got to tell you, this season, the girls are more competitive then ever—if you can believe that. They’re more skilled. Every season, they know that they’re going to sew, they know that they’re going to perform comedy or do some music or dance. But this season, more of the girls are better equipped. There are more girls who can sew. There are more girls who can do all of the challenges. So it’s almost like the super-Olympics of RuPaul’s Drag Race.WU: Is Shangela back again? We love Shangela.RUPAUL: She’s quite a goer, that one. She’s like the Energizer Bunny—she just keeps on going. We’ve got to get you out to L.A. so you can judge the show.WU: That would be so fun. I think we would have a very good time.RUPAUL: Please—we have to do it. In fact, if you can come away from New York for a hot minute, then we’ll have you on for All Stars as a judge, as part of the challenge. Maybe there will be a Jason Wu challenge that we can come up with.WU: You just have to make me one promise: you have to have two people that also co-judge on the same episode that I’m on.RUPAUL: Who are they?WU: Bob Mackie, because he is another legend in my mind, and La Toya Jackson, because she just has to.RUPAUL: Done. We’ll definitely do that.WU: Bob Mackie, La Toya Jackson, and RuPaul … That’s my little boy’s dream come true.RUPAUL: [laughs] Consider it done.WU: I just want to ask you one thing before we finish. Tell me about your work in the LGBT community. You’ve become sort of an ambassador in our community. What are you working on right now?RUPAUL: Well, I’m always involved in some aspect of that. Obviously, through the show, we get to reach a lot of kids just with the message of learning your history and knowing how to move forward by knowing what your history is, because the future belongs to those who can remember the past. I love that moment when Jinkx Monsoon did Grey Gardens.WU: Oh, I was rooting for her this season. She was my favorite.RUPAUL: She’s so fabulous. And because a lot of people didn’t know what Grey Gardens was—a lot of the young people—they went and looked it up and found out some of the great nuggets of gay culture and of eccentric people that they really should know about. So through the show, we teach a lot of people. But on a personal level, my goal is to extract the shame out of femininity and out of being yourself. That is, I think, the biggest thing that young gay people face: shame. And that’s an inside job. That’s why I always say you have to learn how to love yourself. It takes practice. So through our show, through example, and through some of the outreach programs that I’m involved with, that is what my platform is: to take the shame out of being gay, out of being yourself.WU: I think the show has even managed to take away some stereotypes. I mean, sometimes the girls can be quite mean to each other and there are stereotypes within the drag community, but I thought that somebody like Jinkx Monsoon winning was so great because he was, in fact, sort of an outsider of an outsider. That’s a message that’s quite powerful—not only for your viewers, but even within the community.RUPAUL: Especially since Jinkx was such a sweetheart—you know, there’s not that sort of bitchy thing. Especially in the episode where she has to make the outfit for her gay veteran and the gay veteran tells her that he has been ill … The look of compassion on Jinkx’s face says everything you need to know about what young people coming up in the gay world are about. This is someone who is sensitive and beautiful and leads with her heart and is so talented.WU: And she does Little Edie. What more can you ask? So what’s next for RuPaul?RUPAUL: Right now I’m working on a new album and a new book.WU: This is your third book. What is it going to be about? Is it autobiographical?RUPAUL: There are two books coming, actually. I’m working on an autobiographical one, but there’s another coffee-table book we’re working on that is sort of like the World of Wonder book that was put out earlier this year. We’re doing a sort of retrospective coffee-table book. Mathu wants to make it like a workbook and sort of interactive. But I am working on another autobiography. My first book [Lettin It All Hang Out], which came out in 1995, was an autobiography, and then Workin’ It! [RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style] came out just a few years ago. Then I’m also redecorating my house …WU: Oh, that’s fun.RUPAUL: It is fun. I’m going to turn it into an outrageous crib.WU: I imagine there will be color in there.RUPAUL: Oh, yes! Imagine if your latest collection exploded in my house.WU: [laughs] I have to tell you, selfishly, I’m still looking for a RuPaul coloring book.RUPAUL: Oh, wow. Maybe we’ll have to do that.WU: Instead of handing out Disney princesses at restaurants, we’re going to hand out RuPaul coloring books for kids to enjoy. They’ll come with extra colors.RUPAUL: That is a great idea.WU: I smell a collaboration …RUPAUL: [laughs] Gorgeous, gorgeous.