RuPaul Reveals His Traumatic Origin Story in New Memoir

Within the landscape of American pop culture, RuPaul is many things—a reality competition show host, a drag queen, a pop star and a participant in fracking. But with his new memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, the groundbreaking multi-hyphenate endeavors to tell us how he got there.

RuPaul’s origin story is often heartbreakingly relatable. His descriptions of his “stoic” mother and “shallow” father ring with the insight that comes with decades of reflection. And the icon’s failed romantic relationships clearly left scars.

But RuPaul’s greatest strength is that he is a one-of-one public figure. He cut his teeth on the Atlanta performing arts scene, bouncing back and forth between his home town and downtown haunts in New York City before eventually hitting the big time with “Supermodel,” the pop song that synthesized years of grinding, act-building, writing and image-crafting.

Read more at The Daily Beast.