Willow Pill was a fan favorite on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” before Season 14 even started. NBC News said that after only a few episodes, the Chicago-based queen, Cornbread “The Snack” Jeté, and Kerri Colby were already the most talked-about people online. The pill is different from the others because she is still in the competition and almost certain to make the top three, if not win the show outright.
This is especially true since Bosco’s looks are getting attention for all the wrong reasons. Pill said she didn’t expect to have so many fans when she joined the long-running reality show. The “Drag Race” star also said that being different means a lot to people watching at home and that many of them feel a special connection with her.
In an emotional post on Twitter, Pill told people she was trans, which made people like her even more. The woman from Denver said that the journey had been hard because her illness takes up most of her time. The pill has talked about being sick on the show more than once, and her drag name is also a reference to her illness. So, what does the reality star deal with every day?
Willow Pill has a very rare illness.
In her post about coming out, Willow Pill said, “My condition has caused me so much physical and emotional pain that my body became something I always wanted out of.” She also said that the years of intense treatment left her with “medical PTSD.” Billboard says that Pill has cystinosis. The National Kidney Foundation calls it a rare but very serious illness that usually shows up in early childhood and stays with the person for the rest of his or her life.
“Cystinosis is a disease caused by an abnormal buildup of an amino acid called cystine,” they said. “It can affect many parts of the body, like the eyes, muscles, brain, heart, white blood cells, thyroid, and pancreas.” There are many ways to get help, but as Pill herself said, they can be very hard on a person’s physical and mental health.
During her “Meet the Queens” interview (available on YouTube), Pill said she has to take more than 20 pills every day. The “Drag Race” star wrote on Twitter that it’s taken her a long time to stop hating herself because her body has been through so much. Pill told EW that figuring out what happened to her in the hospital helped her realize she is transgender.
Using art to fight their illness
Pill talked about their ongoing battle with cystinosis all through the season. Cystinosis is a disease that happens when there is too much of amino acid cystine in the body. It causes chronic pain and muscle loss. “I’m supposed to be in my prime, but I feel like my body is falling apart,
” they told their fellow contestants on the show. Even though everything was against them, they found a safe place in drag. Pill’s experiences have given them a unique way to show joy and self-expression in the midst of darkness through their art.
What made them want to perform at the talent show was
It would be impossible to talk about Pill’s work without mentioning their performance in the first episode of season 14. Most of the contestants came up with comedy skits and lip-sync performances for their talent show numbers, but not Pill. By thinking outside the box, they showed a now-iconic self-care routine for people in quarantine that included a bathtub, spaghetti, and a toaster oven,
all set to the song “Only Time” by Enya. At a party to watch Season 14, they talked about the big idea that drove the performance. “I thought of that number because Enya was on the list of things we could do, and I was like, “How am I not going to do Enya?”
The most popular person knows she can’t keep doing drag forever.
Willow Pill was told in an interview that cystinosis can even lead to kidney failure. At age 14, the drag queen got a new kidney and went through dialysis. It’s likely that she’ll have to do both of those things again at some point. Pill said, “I wanted to be completely honest because we don’t always see disabled and sick people on TV. I wanted it to be a super honest reflection of how that actually feels,” even though it’s not always the easiest thing to hear or watch.
Drag won’t be her job forever because it can’t be, but for now, Pill is giving it everything she has. Even competing on “Drag Race” is hard, especially since queens need so much time to get ready and Pill often has trouble with her hands. The Chicago-based performer told Outfront magazine that she hadn’t even thought about the possibility of winning.
However, if Pill does win, she plans to use her platform to raise awareness and enjoy all the other perks of being crowned queen. Pill said that doing drag was “a big form of healing,” and she said, “I honestly think I had to do drag just to heal myself.”Based on how popular she is, it seems likely that the fan favorite is also helping a lot of people at home.
