Alyssa Edwards—a Global All Stars winner is born

The first-ever Global All Stars was formatted to include 12 queens from around the world who had all competed in different international seasons of Drag Race and came together for this once-in-a-lifetime drag championship.

Alyssa not only reached the grand finale of Global All Stars alongside Nehellenia (Drag Race Italia season 2), Kween Kong (Drag Race Down Under season 2), and Kitty Scott-Claus (Drag Race UK season 3), but she also outperformed her fellow finalists in a nostalgic and exhilarating lip sync to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. In the end, Mama Ru declared that Alyssa was finally joining the winners' circle of the Drag Race franchise.

"I find myself stumbling for words… and you know I'm a lady of a lot of words, but it's because I'm still processing," the Global All Stars champion says. "This has been a journey — I know we joke and laugh about it being 23 years, and now I can say 24 years — for me to join the Drag Race Hall of Fame. I hope that the legacy I leave behind is far beyond the tongue pops, and the big wigs, and all that. I hope that it's a journey of a courageous soul, a journey of perseverance, overcoming, and tenacity. This is what it's all about."

Alyssa has been preaching the same message — "Winning isn't everything, but wanting to is" — to herself on Drag Race and to her students at Beyond Belief Dance Company, but here she is now: with a crown, a scepter, a title, and millions of fans from around the world. For a legion of longtime viewers, Alyssa's crowning feels like the fulfillment of this queen's ultimate destiny. During our conversation, however, she reveals that she actually questioned whether she'd come back.

"Global All Stars was a very interesting, unique, one-of-a-kind series. And if I'm being very honest with you, when I was asked to do this, I really had to pause and think," Alyssa recalls. "There was honestly a lot of second-guessing. A lot of what-if questions that I had to figure out, internally. I asked myself, 'What if I'm not the crazy, zany lady from season 5? What if I don't have the magic of the Alyssa Edwards from All Stars 2?'"

After getting the call for Global All Stars, Alyssa slept on it. She woke up the next day still feeling unsure and agitated, but now determined to reach a conclusion.

"I sat at my desk, and I asked myself: 'What if you dared to strut back up into that werk room? And what if you dared to remind yourself of the little gay boy from Mesquite, Texas who put on a wig for the very first time? And what if, just what if, this opens the door to your destiny?' And so I packed my bags."

Alyssa cuts back to the present day. "I have a whole shrine of flowers downstairs in my kitchen," she says. "I'm actually going to take a picture to remind myself, daily, that this is so much bigger than the wigs and the tongue pops."

This is much bigger than the wigs and the tongue pops, indeed.

Alyssa, a notorious queen from Mesquite, Texas, was crowned on Global All Stars one day prior to Kamala Harris' historic Houston rally where Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Tina Knowles spoke to voters in the hopes that Democrats can flip Texas, a historically red state, into true blue. This has been a long dream for progressives in the state, and much like Harris' completely coincidental guest appearance at the All Stars 9 finale, there's something whimsical about the timing of Alyssa's crowning.

On Saturday, October 26, as Drag Race fans discussed the Global All Stars finale and celebrated Alyssa's victory, the newly-crowned queen shared a single post on social media that entire day: a selfie, out of drag, via Instagram story, showing off the "I Voted Early" sticker, with a message encouraging other U.S. citizens to get out there and vote.

It would be within reason — and it's actually the most common behavior — for a queen who just won Drag Race to bask in the glory of that achievement. But Alyssa's early-vote selfie sat there as the only new piece of content from her throughout the entire weekend.

"Well, first, I want to say thank you for getting it, and thank you for sending a message," Alyssa tells me. "I had written so many thank-yous. I had so many words. But I said, 'I'm not ready.' I was still trying to process everything. I watched this at two o'clock in the morning, when it came out, immediately. I have my reaction video. I may share it, but maybe I'll save it for a documentary. It's so crazy."

She adds, "I cried like a baby. I wept happy tears. Oh my gosh… tears of work, tears of years of work. But after going to bed at six o'clock in the morning, I woke up the next day and I thought, 'You know what I want my speech to be? It's a beautiful day to get out and vote.' It's a beautiful day to have this right that we have. It's a beautiful day to see drag entertainers and queer people sharing their talents on television."

"Drag Race is so much more than the kicks, the splits, the dips, and the clothes," Alyssa says. "It's a journey of courageous souls that share their stories. We have to remember that there was no one like me on TV when I was a young child. This is a joy. It's a treat that we get to see this. And as passionate as we all are, the bigger message is that we have a right. We have an opportunity, and we need to protect it."

The Global All Stars winner reaffirms, "When I posted that, I'm glad that you understood what that message was. There was nothing else that needed to be shared that day. It's important for us to be able to share this and continue to do this. We need to link together."

Fans who have watched Alyssa's journey over the years, such as her 2018 Netflix docuseries Dancing Queen, have gotten to know a queer creative whose life story is much bigger than her endless list of Drag Race catchphrases and viral moments from the WOW Presents Plus series Alyssa's Secret.

"There was a time when I was very... not ashamed, but I was kind of scared of what Mesquite, Texas would think of me," she reflects. "If they knew that, after-hours, after me teaching my students at Beyond Belief Dance Company, I was putting on a wig, and I was parading around a stage."

She remembers asking herself, "What would they think of me? Would they second-guess me being the best choice of an educator for their children? Would that take away my credibility? Would they judge me? Would it be all of the above?"

"Putting on a wig is very brave, especially at the time when I was doing it. Everything was after midnight," Alyssa notes, looking back at a time before Drag Race was on television. "Now I'm riding in parades during the day. My shows are at seven o'clock, and families are there. Families who watch Drag Race together. So, yeah, that was my very first responsibility as the Global All Stars queen. That's the queen that Alyssa Edwards is. Get out there and vote. Get out there. I want to tell people, no matter how tired I was… this was the one thing I needed to do the most."

I confess to Alyssa that I, too, have a bit of a secret.

As she went through the emotional roller-coaster of winning Global All Stars, going out to vote, and getting tons of congratulatory messages, I was chatting with two of my queer peers who happen to be her close friends — queer country singer Kameron Ross and his partner, Sugar Rush star Lio Botello — who stayed up until 2 a.m. in the morning to watch the grand finale right next to Alyssa and her partner. She smiles when I bring up a picture of the four of them sitting together to watch this final episode… all kinds of balloons and flower arrangements in the background, and pure joy written all over their faces.

"I believe that my book of life has already been written, and it's just now being read out loud," Alyssa says. "And this chapter that I'm in is so full of love. You just mentioned my friends, my tribe… oh my gosh. My supportive partner, my life partner that I get to share life with, who was right there beside me, holding my hand."

"Even though he comes from a very different walk of life, he's coming on this rollercoaster of a journey with love, just sheer love," she gushes.

Alyssa highlights that not only is she a Capricorn, but she's a "double Cap," which means that she's "a goal-oriented human by nature." She explains, "Just when I thought I had done it all, it now feels like I'm just getting started, and I have so many exciting things I can't wait to share this year… even at the beginning of this new year."

I ask if she can say more, but now isn't the time. "I do want to leave you with this," she declares. "This experiment was very special. I love that the fans are so passionate about it, and I want us to just remind ourselves that we, as queer artists, as a community, need that unity to brings us all together; that love. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. That's the power of drag."

Alyssa recalls, "RuPaul inspired me and gave me a world to believe in. RuPaul championed a show and never gave up on that. She gave us a stage and a platform to be our authentic selves. And then I walked into that werk room and I met Tessa T, and she said that I inspired her as a young child."

"I don't know if I had seen this coming. It was a plot twist!" she says. "I've been writing this book, and it is pages from my journal, and I hope and pray for that final chapter to have a happily ever after. And on this day, I am relishing and basking in the beauty. I've never given up. I've never given in. I've never stopped believing. I want to say thank you to every fan and to every supporter. Thank you to every single person who celebrates the art of drag. Thank you."

All episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars are now streaming on Paramount+.