‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Star Kyne Partners with WattPad for Big Queer Book Report
Wattpad, the leading webnovel platform that is redefining the way people read and write, celebrated Pride Month this year with the second annual Big Queer Book Report, the company’s Webby-nominated, year-long celebration of LGBTQ stories and voices.
First launched during Pride 2022, the Big Queer Book Report received an overwhelmingly positive response from readers worldwide. In addition to reflecting Wattpad’s commitment to being a safe space for LGBTQ authors and allies looking for stories and characters they can relate to, the Big Queer Book Report promotes diversity, highlights BookTok and influencer recommendations, and showcases curated reading lists.
New this year, Wattpad partnered with influencer and drag superstar Kyne, who competed on the inaugural season of Canada’s Drag Race.
After her time on the show, she took to TikTok to make short-form math videos, where she tells riddles, gives math lessons, and teaches her followers how to spot misleading statistics in media, all while dressed in high-glamor drag. With an audience of over 1.5 million followers across platforms, Kyne spreads her passion for math education and scientific literacy, bringing STEM education to the queer community and queerness to STEM.
OFM caught up with Kyne to talk more about her drag, passion for education, and partnership with Wattpad.
Let me begin by asking, how excited are you to partner with Wattpad for the second annual Big Queer Book Report?
I’m very excited! With my whole brand being the math drag queen, I’m all about inspiring a love for education, reading, and learning. I think Wattpad and the Big Queer Book Report fit perfectly into that.
How influential would you say this project is?
I think it’s extremely influential. I feel there’s not a huge amount of queer representation on traditional bookshelves, so I think what Wattpad is doing is very important.
Do you have a Wattpad account yourself?
I do. I don’t write, but I have been reading some stuff as part of my partnership with them, such as Into the Wild Dark by Sondi Warner.
Besides Wattpad’s commitment to creating a safe space for LGBTQ authors and allies looking for stories and characters they can relate to, in your opinion, what else makes the web novel platform worth checking out?
I think the great thing is that they have stories about loads of stuff, even people you can’t relate to. From stories about werewolves and angels to ace romance stories, there’s just a huge amount of diversity on there, nothing like what you would see in a regular bookstore, so I think that’s part of what draws people to it.
Do you believe there’s more of an urgency these days to elevate LGBTQ stories and voices?
Yes, I do. Pride season has felt very different this year considering all the attacks on queer people that we’ve been seeing all around the world, especially in the U.S. There are a lot of people out there who are sort of framing queer people as predators and groomers, and I feel like lots of brands, as well as our allies, need to take a stand and show that we are human. That we’re just like everybody else. We want to experience love, and we want to have hopes and dreams just like everyone else. I think that’s really the beauty of LGBTQ stories.
How have you been celebrating Pride this year?
My channel is all about education, so for me, Pride is about spreading out that activism. I’ve sort of made it my soapbox to do videos all month long about the history of Pride, the history of Stonewall, the history of drag, and just spread that education that drag is not a crime. Drag is not a threat, and it’s been existing for many, many years. Just giving people that awareness because lots of people want to go around and say, Oh, you’re shoving this stuff down our throats. Why do we have rainbows everywhere? I think that just underpins the importance of it. The fact that people are questioning why we need to elevate these queer stories, to me, that just shows the importance of elevating them even more.
I love that you’re all about bringing STEM education to the queer community and queerness to STEM. Have you always been about this platform?
No, what’s funny is, I started doing drag and math completely separately. I was like Hannah Montana, living two separate lives (laughs). Then, over the pandemic, I blended them together completely as a joke. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be funny to see a drag queen doing a math riddle? In my mind, I was thinking I was the troll under the bridge asking you a riddle before you can pass.
I just thought it would be funny, and I really didn’t think there were many people with my niche intersection of interests. Then as I started posting, people would just reach out to me and say they loved my style of teaching. They loved the idea of having a drag queen be their teacher. Since then, I’ve sort of rebranded, and I’m now the queen of math and education.
For those who don’t know, how did your journey with drag begin?
I just started experimenting with makeup in high school. I would Google men wearing makeup, wondering if it was OK. So, I started with a little bit of concealer and powder here and there, and then I started really getting into beauty gurus. I was obsessed with girls that had winged eyeliner, so one Halloween, I made up an excuse to wear a full face of makeup. Then from there, it was game over.
From there, I started doing videos on YouTube, how to do a colorful eyeshadow look, and then once I saw Drag Race, there was no stopping me. I saw drag queens as the ultimate manifestation of that creative makeup art, except they would extend it into the hair, the props, the costumes, and the music. It was everything that I loved, so that’s how I got into the ride.
Then you catapulted to fame by competing on the inaugural season of Canada’s Drag Race. What did you take away from that experience?
It was so amazing to sort of be shown to a new, huge, worldwide audience because to me, the great thing about Drag Race is that it shows the humans underneath the drag. It really helps people relate to a community of people that they would otherwise think of as so other and different. To me, that was the great thing about Drag Race, and I had a lot of fun.
Although you left the competition early, you still made quite an impact. Would you return for an All Stars season if asked?
Yes, I totally would!
@wattpad Angels, demons, vampires, and a love triangle like no other—this story has it all and it’s @Kyne’s Big Queer Book Report pick! #BookTok #QueerBooks
What are some other future goals you hope to accomplish with your drag career and platform?
To tell you the truth, I’m really loving what I’m doing right now. I love staying on social media and doing short form videos, and I feel it’s making a big impact on people. I’d love to explore new ways of communicating that education, maybe with long form video, and I hope in the future to put out a book. So, maybe people can keep their eyes out for that.
Stay up-to-date and connect with Kyne by following her on Instagram and TikTok @onlinekyne, or visit onlinekyne.com.
Photos courtesy of Kyne, Justin Atkins, and Wattpad
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