Drag queen Trixie Mattel will be taking a break from work after "struggling" for more than a year. Trixie became a world renowned star after first appearing on Ru Paul's Drag Race in 2015. Since then, the queen returned for the All Stars version and as host of the spin-off show The Pit Stop, as well as running a YouTube channel and make-up business.
Trixie told fans in a video that all the work was "not sustainable" and there would be "a hiatus" for at least three months. "I need a complete reboot," says Trixie, who uses she/her pronouns in drag and he/him when not performing. It was a rare video where Trixie, real name Brian Firkus, was out of drag.
"I feel uncomfortable about telling so much of myself," Brian says, before opening up about a tough year. "Things happened this year that I’m not ready to talk about, it just really beat it out of me and taught me new lows of the human experience. "When you feel like you cannot stop crying and you’re so upset and then you have to put on a wig and make people laugh - it is chilling.
" Brian says he'd been working himself to "death" as Trixie and had become ill from stress. It got to a point where he "struggled to enjoy" drag, which "I feel weird complaining about because all my wildest dreams came true". Brian grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has previously shared his experience of growing up in poverty.
"Growing up poor is traumatising," he says in the latest video, saying it's affected his work ethic. "You can’t take a .