“Sleeping saved me,” says Kyran Thrax about finding self-confidence after nursing

“It sounds so cliché,” says performer Kyran Peet, “but drag saved me.”

Kyran – who uses their pronouns – proudly performed their first show as drag persona Kyran Thrax in 2019, surrounded by friends at an open mic night in Vauxhall, London.

But, as the drag artist explains, the Kyran Thrax persona wasn’t born that night: “This part of me, I think, has been with me since everything happened when I was thirteen.”

As a teenager, Kyran fondly remembers going to school with platform shoes, black eyeliner and teased purple hair with “the most orange foundation,” which they say felt like an early expression of their drag persona.

Kyran, 26, now prides himself on being confident and uplifting others through drag, but says that “it started as a defense mechanism because it was a way for me to try to survive”.

At the age of 13, Kyran had just come out as gay and had started talking to a 23 year old man, who claimed to be a teenager, after meeting on social media.

“I convinced myself I was ready for a romantic relationship, which is just ridiculous,” says Kyran, adding that the pair met and had a seven-month emotional and sexual relationship.

“It was terrible,” Kyran adds, “I gave this man everything, my entire childhood.”