(bright music) - Kids are enchanted
and filled with wonder at the site of like, characters. And they love magic and play. And drag queens are all of those things. So, I knew that, you know, a drag queen, reading a really cool kid's book to a room full of children
would be a massive hit. (bright music) I'm Michelle Tea. I'm a writer and I'm a
literary arts organizer, and I'm the creator of
Drag Queen Story Hour. I was a new mom. I had my child late in life, in my 40s, and so, at that point I'd spent decades in the queer arts community, and suddenly, I found myself in these Mommy and Me environments that were by default, very straight, and I just missed my queer culture, and started thinking, what
would these types of events that are for kids look like if it sort of got queerified a little bit? And so I was like, oh,
obviously, a drag queen. Hi!
- Hi, how's it goin'? - Panda Dulce and Pickle are two of the original Drag
Queen Story Hour queens. Oh my God, I'm so happy to see you guys. Thank you for doing this. Of course, my pleasure! - Panda Dulce was one of the queens at the very first ever
Drag Queen Story Hour in San Francisco, and Pickle
is the very first queen that I worked with when I
started a chapter in Los Angeles. - I mean, I really feel that Michelle had this idea
that is truly so brilliant, and so when I heard it I
was like, that's so great. I wanna do that. And I did the first one
at Stories in Los Angeles, and it was so fun and just
so magical that I just, I just got hooked and I
just had to keep doing it. - I was thrilled at the
idea of Drag Story Hour. The idea of bringing one's drag persona to youth work was exciting to me, because I remember when I was a kid, I was so enchanted by story time with my librarian, Mrs. Robinson,
at my elementary school. That was a time where you
could let your imagination fly. (bright music) - The very first Drag
Queen Story Hour happened in San Francisco, and from there it just
started poppin' off. I started getting emails, you know, from places around the United
States that was surprising like Brownsville, Texas. And then I started getting
emails from all over the world. I was so excited that
this felt a little bit like a movement. But I think there's a lot of conservatives that find that really threatening. - If people are threatened by drag, I think they should really
interrogate why that is before they storm a library - There's a huge disconnect between the environment that
these disruptors create, and what they're, they
seem to be trying to say. They're screaming, "Protect the children," and they're screaming slurs
and they're screaming threats, and they're creating a violent environment that upsets these children. It can be very stressful
to think that, you know, these kids might be entering a situation where there's danger. It weighs on me a lot. To back down because of
people that feel threatened by this joy, is not an option. - Drag Queen Story Hour is so crucial now because we are seeing this
slate of anti-trans legislation. We are seeing anti-drag legislation, and it's really awful the
way that the anti-drag people have brought violence
into their responses. You know, kids are getting those messages. We need to let kids know that it's okay that they are who they are,
it's okay for them to exist. Hi everybody, thank you so much for coming to a little afternoon
Drag Queen Story Hour. I'm really happy that these
two drag queens are here, but I just wish that they
hadn't just vanished. Will you all help me by
screaming their names? Panda!
- Panda! - Look, Panda Dulce! Pickle!
- Pickle! - [Pickle] There you are! - Oh my goodness, okay.
- I've been looking everywhere. - I firmly believe that
seeing is believing, and that's why media,
that's why storytelling is so important. I want kids to be able
to envision themselves as the protagonists of their own story. Y'all are so good at this. - In so many environments, we tell children that they need to behave and they need to be quiet. This is about letting them be silly. It's okay to have big ears. Can you show me big ears? - Drag is such a good
way to teach children about the spirit of play. Yes, that is so funny there. - I guess as a queer,
mom and he has two moms, that I like to bring
him to events like this, and there's just not that many
events for LGBTQ families. - We'll definitely be at the next one. - I do think that drag Queen story hour is the best idea I ever had, but for me, it was just an idea. All of the drag queens that
are out there made it happen. (cheerful music)
