Most of the time when I’m doing my make-up,
I want people to go, “Huh?”
We’re achieving that so far.
Hello, I’m Crystal Methyd from
Today, I’m going to be teaching a younger drag artist
one of the looks I’ve done in the past over a Zoom call.
Beautiful, you look great!
So, this should be interesting.
Hi, I’m Nell, AKA Olyvera.
To do drag is a way of expressing myself.
Being an AFAB drag artist,
which is “Assigned Female At Birth,”
I tend to reach less into just femininity
and more into every single aspect of gender.
My main concern isn’t looking like a woman.
I want to look like my own creation.
I love inspiring other people.
I think when people see you living your fantasy,
it inspires them to go out and live their fantasy.
Are we... this is it? We’re doing it?
-Hi. -Hi.
How are you?
I’m alright thank you, how are you?
I’m good. I love your hair.
Thank you, I love yours too.
What's your favorite thing about drag?
The transformation and the creativity
and just being able to show yourself without judgment.
It’s hard to judge someone
when they’re being that out there.
So speaking of “out there,” let’s do it.
I always think it’s funny
when I’m watching YouTubers do their make-up
and they just look perfect
and they’re already wearing their wig.
That is not what I look like when I get ready for drag.
So, you are from Birmingham?
I’m actually from a small town
that’s about 45 minutes away from Birmingham.
I kind of like being the representative
for queer people where I live.
The fact that when I walk down the street
just in my everyday life, wearing what I typically wear,
people’s heads turn.
I definitely get you there.
Walk down the street and be like...
people are shocked.
I’m the... somewhat the “token gay” of my class.
They’ll go to me for all the questions and stuff.
I mean, it's cool that you're an ambassador that way.
Yeah. It's interesting.
It's somewhat tiring, I think,
because I’ve been through that since high school,
since I came out.
It’s like everyone comes to you for the questions,
they’re like, “OK, so what’s this?
I know it’s not at all related to you,
but it’s something vaguely LGBT.
So what is this, can you tell me?′
Yeah, “I need you to explain it.”
Because I felt like it was my duty, you know?
If there were any actually queer kids
coming to me and asking me,
I’d want them to know and want to be accurate.
I just realized as I’m rubbing this in, I didn’t shave.
See, there’s a problem I don’t have.
It’ll just be a little added texture.
Where I live, the pageant scene is really big.
And I find it interesting that
they have different categories for everyone.
So it’s like there’s the drag queens,
they don’t compete against the drag kings.
And I know some people do disagree with AFAB queens
and AFAB artists existing, mostly AFAB queens.
Or say that it’s lesser.
It’s not a competition to be an artist,
it’s just expression.
I did this look because I wanted to use every colour,
so I’m going to go in the colour of the rainbow.
I’ll start with red.
Right now, we’re trying to achieve just
gorgeous natural make-up.
I feel like there’s a handful of drag queen tips that you
have to learn in the dressing room.
In Birmingham, at least,
we tend to not have dressing rooms.
It’s more, you get ready where you live
and then you get a taxi or an Uber
and just have to sit there looking however you look.
I know at my show that I have, it’s all ages,
so you can get in if you’re under 18
as long as you have adult supervision.
I love seeing parents bringing their teenagers
to a drag show.
It’s just really magical.
This will stop when I go to university,
when I move away from home, but I always go to...
shows and stuff with my mum
because my mum is pretty much
as much a drag fan as I am.
I mean, she’s friends with my friends’ mums
and they have a little group chat,
and it’s all just really adorable.
I feel allies are so important because
if you’re not in the LGBT group
and you hear the negative things being said,
it’s easier for you to dismiss it.
Everyone just needs to know that if they hear something
offensive, they need to stand up and say something.
I think we’ve got a pretty good...
I like to call it “the map.”
Whenever I do all my creams,
it’s kind of like, “This is where it’s going to go.”
So I’m going to go and set everything
with my neutral set.
When you wanted to drag, how did you start?
I started by recreating people’s make-up looks.
That was the main thing.
Me too.
Yeah, and then once I did that,
I started to try and create my own style
and discover how I wanted to do everything.
You kind of have to know all the basics
before you can break all the rules.
There is a lot of things about drag
that are still underground, which is why I like it.
It’s why I cherish being a queer person so much
because it’s kind of like we’re part of this really
cool group of people.
You know what I do have prepared, but I’ve not done?
Glitter?
Oh my gosh, me either.
Yes. Yes, give it to me.
You’re an animal.
Yes, roar!
Was that good? Am I a photographer?
I feel like I’ve learned quite a lot about
you as a person as well,
your whole process with everything.
It’s sort of changed my perception of
how I would do a look,
if you get what I mean?
That’s cool!
You know, it’s helped me along
because I’m very much a perfectionist,
so it’s helped to kind of take away from that.
A little bit free to just go
all out on whatever it looks like.
Yeah, and that took me a while to
get down with not being perfect.
The make-up isn’t going to be perfect every time,
it can’t be.
And so, yeah...
it’s OK for part of it to not look as great,
but you can still exude the same confidence every time,
no matter what.
Yeah, totally.
All the emotions!