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When Peppermint was growing up, she didn't have any good examples of transgender people to look up to or model herself after. The most she had were talk shows like Jerry Springer, where the show would single out transgender people, humiliate them, and exploit and sensationalize their stories for ratings purposes. Even though Peppermint always knew she was different, she also knew she didn't want what she saw to be her experience.

Peppermint remembers in high school there was an event where students would dress in drag and perform, so she put on a fur coat, a blonde wig and a beret before strutting around in front of her entire school. "They were screaming and hollering, and I won," she said. "And that was very validating. I was like, 'Oh, this is it. I get to be a woman, and they are cheering me on. This is how I have to do it.'"

After performing as a drag queen locally in Delaware and then Philadelphia and eventually New York, she found it still wasn't enough.

Though the best way Peppermint could express her femininity was first as a drag queen, she came to a realization. "I wasn’t giving myself the time to really sit down with myself and focus and really become comfortable with my trans-ness," she said.

She checked certain things off her list — she had traveled the world and made a successful living doing drag, but still she wasn't happy. "And that’s when I was kind of forced to deal with what I hadn’t dealt with for so long."

As she started to transition, she says people started to just get it, and now she lives her life as the woman she's always been.

Catch Peppermint in season nine of "RuPaul's Drag Race,” airing Friday's at 8 p.m. EST on VH1, as she competes for the title of America's Next Drag Superstar.

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