Behind the Drag: Meet the trans Latina drag queen exploring her identity through art

Behind the Drag aims to showcase the off-stage lives of some of America's most talented drag queens. The intimate series gives us the opportunity to meet the people behind our favorite over-the-top drag queens. Come back every Friday this summer to meet someone new!

Jupiter Velvet dreamed of being a girl at young age, and drag helped her get there.

As a trans Latina living in Miami, Florida, drag became a gateway to exploring her femininity in a safe space that was the queer nightlife scene. It helped her discover her gender identity and find her drag esthetic.

"As a trans person, I don't necessarily fit the status quo of what a female or feminine person presents," she said. "Jupiter Velvet exists as this kind of escape for me. I created her as a means for me to cope with having to to have rejected femininity for so many years, as a way for to live out the adolescent/teenager/childhood fantasy of being a girl that I never got to experience."

She credits her boyfriend, who is also trans, for understand and seeing her as a woman no matter what she's wearing and for making her feel empowered.

"There's this really common misconception that trans women are drag queens. And then, some trans women have this idea that trans women shouldn't be doing drag. I'm a trans person and a performer—those are two separate things," she said.

"There is no right or wrong way to exist, period."

You can watch Jupiter Velvet's story on this episode of Behind the Drag in the video above.