Trixie Mattel, the popular drag queen who rose to fame on RuPaul’s Drag Race, is going on sabbatical.
In a just-released video on her YouTube channel, titled “I’m Taking A Break! Here’s Why“, Mattel calls her current situation “unsustainable.”
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“It is not so fierce to work yourself to death. It is not so fierce to work yourself into an autoimmune disorder. It is not so fierce to like… do so much drag as Trixie, that at a certain point, I literally started to feel like a Trixie impersonator,” Mattel said in the video. “And then to be so lucky to do what I do, and not be appreciating it, it’s horrible.”
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The 34-year-old Wisconsin native spawned a drag empire after breaking out on Drag Race, where she became a fan-favorite despite getting eliminated halfway through the competition. She founded the makeup company Trixie Cosmetics, hosted The Pit Stop TV program as well as a podcast called The Bald and the Beautiful, starred in the drag reality singing competition Queen of the Universe, and also appeared in the hit fixer-upper TV series Trixie Motel.
While her fame only grew, the work began taking a toll, she said.
“All my wildest dreams came true when I was in my mid-20s, doing Drag Race, traveling the world and making music and all that,” Mattel noted in the video. “It was the paychecks I always wanted, doing my dream job, and I just, over time, squeezed out my real life so fiercely, where all I was doing, was this.”
“You know when straight guys are all muscular at the top and have twig little legs at the gym? That was my work-life balance” It was all work and money-making and creative stuff, and then my social life, family life, personal life… twigs. Frail twigs. And the bigger the work things got, the smaller my real-life things got.”
Health issues, including arthritis and a condition called temporomandibular joint disorder — which affects the movement of the jaw — also wore her down.
“I never dreamed of any of this,” Mattel said. “When all this started happening, that day off seemed so, ‘Sleep when you’re dead.’ But after 10 years, you start to get sick and feel horrible. The Trixie industry that I’ve created, as is, is not sustainable.”
“Being a hard worker is fierce,” Mattel added. “Being a hard worker at the expense of your real life and health, is not fierce.”
The drag artist estimates she’ll be off for three months. Hundreds of fans wished her well.
“Enjoy your time,” one posted to X. “We will be here when you get back! 💗💓💞💕💖”
