'We should do it more!': Children's author explains why drag queens help with representation in schools.
6 April 2023, 17:40 | Updated: 13 April 2023, 15:16
Aida H Dee, children's author, and performer spoke to Tom Swarbrick about representation in schools and how it can help children become 'the best person they can be.'
Aida H Dee is the founder of Drag Story Hour, an initiative that involves drag performers telling stories in schools in an effort to promote inclusivity.
When asked by Tom why drag was central to teaching children about acceptance Aida replied: "The idea of questioning it in the first place is not problematic but there are plenty of performers out there..."
Continuing, they went on to comment on comedian and drag queen Paul O'Grady who died last week, saying: "Paul O'Grady was once a child and grew up to become a very successful drag artist."
Tom asked: "Is the aim to go into a school and say being a drag queen is an option for you?"
To which Aida replied: "I mean yeah, that's not what I've done or what I do but yeah of course being a drag queen is an option".
"It's a job, it's a hobby...so many different things and it's not scary, it's not sexual in its nature, that's not what drag is".
As well as writing children's books, Aida has also performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Tate Britain and refers to themselves as a role model.
"Here's an LGBTQ person which historically we have not put in front of kids at a young age, look at the statistics on suicide to see how that turned out."
"We're talking about how you can make our young people be the best version they can be...introducing a type of person that exists."
"We should do it more, to be honest with all different kinds of people."
The discussion comes after the National Education Union (NEU) have come out in support of drag queen authors entering schools in order to challenge the "heteronormative culture" in education.