“Drag Race'”s Lana Ja'Rae honed confidence after being 'terrified' of 'what the fans did' to drag mother Luxx Noir London

The streets of New York City already know that a runway LOVES to see Lana Ja’Rae coming. Now, as she makes her mark as RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17's youngest queen at 22, she is ready to let the world (and the Main Stage catwalk) in on her slayage, too.

“I think that this is going to wake it up for the girls. When I perform, on my social media, I wear nothing. I’m not given the opportunity in New York to wear expensive clothes in the club and get them dirty while I’m dancing,” Lana tells Entertainment Weekly. “Now I have the opportunity to be given a platform to showcase looks and to model and to do what I love to do. So, I think people should look out for a lot of looks from me because, yeah, it’s kind of nasty.”

Despite her young age, even a gentle whisper of Lana’s name on the scene is enough to send shivers of excitement down the spines of New Yorkers from the clubs of Brooklyn to Manhattan. It’s a legacy befitting of someone who’s been in the game for twice as long, but Lana has earned it on pure ambition and prowess.

Related: Drag Race season 17 star Onya Nurve wants her 'Black and glamorous' excellence to inspire others 'to not give up'

With a long-limbed, pose-perfect aesthetic inspired by ‘90s supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Lana —a signed model, herself — even caught the eye of her drag mother, season 15’s Luxx Noir London, who approached her immediately after the local Ultimate Diva pageant and declared, “You’re c--t, you’re going to be my drag daughter.”

Thus, Lana’s fate was sealed. And she’s not about to let fans — the same ones that dragged Luxx simply for being confident in her own excellence — ruin it.

Lana admits she was “very cautious” as she entered the Werk Room, mostly because she “saw what the fans did to her,” with regard to Luxx (whom she also jokingly confirms has a certain wig in her possession that's not actually 40 inches long, but rather "41," she says with a laugh.)

“I was terrified of that,” Lana continues. “I told myself I was the best in the room, but I also realized everybody else in the room was also the best in the room. I just did the best I could do and prayed that was enough. I was like, you know what, you look c--t today, and that’s amazing. You have to be at peace with that.”

She’s also at peace with her own skills as a dancer, performer, and theater-reared entertainer born in Oklahoma and raised on stage in Texas. She got her first hit of theatrical attention when she played Agatha Trunchbull in a local production of Matilda, which excited her because, as she recalls, “I had huge titties” in the role.

Related: RuPaul pays tribute to The Vivienne 'with a broken heart' after Drag Race UK winner's death

A star was born, despite her childhood spent in a region that “wasn’t accepting” of queerness.

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Now, she’s found a home among the fashion elite of New York and her season 17 sisters.

“I think [this season] ups the game because we’re all aware that we’re on a season together and we have to make TV. We also love each other,” she says of the season ahead. “We can call you a bitch, but we love you, you know? There’s lots of drama, good performances, good challenges, good people — lots of beautiful people. What more could you ask for? The perfect package.”

We’ll let you decide whether she’s talking about everyone or, just maybe, only Lana in the room.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on MTV. Watch EW's full interview with Lana at the top of this post.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly