GRANDE DAME

In the drag community you'd have to be living under a rock to not know who Juno is. Meet Juno Birch, a sculptor-turned-drag-queen whose alien-meets-1950s-housewife look is impossible to forget. 

Obsessed with makeup and dressing up since she was a child, Birch suffered from body dysmorphia and bullying at school as a transgender. But using humor as an infallible weapon against bigotry and ignorance and first focusing her talent on small clay figurines, she’s now bloomed into a divine and hilarious artist. Who is Juno Birch? It depends on the day, but there are a few key themes: she’s a stunning alien with a penchant for retrofuturistic styling, cat-eye sunglasses, and Jennifer Coolidge lips. The Manchester-based drag queen has turned pop culture gender tropes into art with her art sculptures of exaggerated beauty norms and possesses a natural skill for mixing up pastel foundation shades. Over the years, the look has evolved as a technique that brings her visions and illustrations to life. “When I was growing up trans, it was quite alienating, I felt like a ‘homemade’ human,” Birch shares. So Birch created this alien bitch who is a stunning woman who crash-landed on Earth in 1962, and ever since she’s been trying to disguise herself as a human—but not really succeeding. Aside from Tim Burton and John Waters being inspirations, she also finds inspirations from tragic film characters like those of Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep from Death Becomes Her, and, of course, actual aliens. “Mars Attacks! is  one of her biggest inspirations for her looks. Even the custom platinum wig she commissioned was designed to recreate the film’s teased-out ’60s styling. But Birch doesn't see this as an alter ego, It's rather just an extension of her—a more fabulous version of her. I feel like I can just do anything when I’m dressed like this. I could watch her hilarious short videos all day on Instagram. They are too funny to watch, and so artfully done.

I just adore her style and music choices....sooooo me! And her wiggery is drop dead.