This week, VICE published a video highlighting a 6-year-old boy who performs as a drag queen. In the video, the child’s parents claim that he has been doing drag since he was four years old.
The child, Asa, goes by “Lulu LovelyTwirls.” In the video, Asa showed VICE reporters his room, which included a Barbie house, decals of the PowerPuff Girls and “Pride” flags. He was wearing a blue skirt in the video.
Aaron, Asa’s father, said that he considers his family to be “traditional.”
“But, we have a child that’s interested in something that’s maybe not as traditional,” he added.
“Asa refers to himself as a drag queen. He does it very proudly. He performs at drag shows as Lulu LovelyTwirls. He puts together and produces his own numbers for drag shows,” the mother, Jennifer, added. “It’s something innate within him.”
VICE just ran this piece celebrating a 6-year-old drag queen. His parents claim he knew since he was 4 that he wanted to do this adult themed entertainment.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 9, 2023
He was taught as a toddler to dress up as a girl and perform provocatively for adults as they hand him cash tips. pic.twitter.com/bDhKZGeQID
The parents acknowledged that Asa’s interest in drag originated with his interest in dance.
“I would say, the real conversation about drag started the first time he went to Pride with us,” Jennifer said.
“The first time that we took any of our kids to Pride, Asa was four. We thought it would be a good way to bring our kids in and let them see the diversity of the world around us,” Aaron added.
At the Pride event, a drag queen began dancing on a stage. At that point, Asa asked his father if he could do the same.
“Following that for the next year, Asa was just obsessed with drag. And so, the conversations led to, ‘would Asa ever want to wear a dress?” Jennifer said. His parents then bought him a Barbie nightgown.
“He said to me one day, ‘I’m going to go put on my dress and I am going to sing and you are going to video me and put me on Facebook everybody can give me likes.’ And I said, ‘okay,’” she added.
After Jennifer shared the video, the family was invited to a drag queen brunch. Video showed Asa taking cash tips from patrons at a restaurant after he performed with a drag queen. Now, Asa performs in drag about once a month.
In a conversation with his mom, Asa said he likes being a boy “some of the time.” He said that when he’s “Lulu,” his pronouns are “she and they.”
At one point, someone called Child Protective Services about the family.
“I don’t care about the threats…we’re going to do it [drag] anyway,” Jennifer said.
Aaron and Jennifer shared that they testified against a bill that would ban youth participation in drag shows, which would include drag queen story hours.
“He was born to do this,” Jennifer said. “It’s genuine.”