‘Let the monsters eat themselves': ‘RuPaul's Drag Race' winner Ginger Minj spills the tea on her online haters and what the scepter really tastes like

Yahoo

6 days ago

After Ginger Minj won RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 10, she couldn't stop herself from biting into her sparkly new scepter. Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as it looked. "To be completely honest with you, it's like when you chew on tinfoil, you get those little zings through your teeth," she tells Gold Derby. "I also accidentally bit one of the rhinestones, so I was picking little glass shards out of my teeth for like an hour."
Winning the competition still "hasn't really set in yet," explains the 39-year-old comedy queen from Orlando. "The viewing party was Friday night, and then the weekend was such a blur. I woke up this morning after finally sleeping, and looked over at the crown and scepter, and I was like, 'Oh, holy sh--, I won.' It feels so good, but it also feels so weird, because it's like, well, what's next?"
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Ginger already has a tattoo to commemorate her Drag Race journey, and now she plans on properly finishing it. "I started during Season 7, and I've added to it every season," she states in our interview. "So, it's got the two flags, the seven, and then the two yellow stars for All Stars 2. I'm gonna put six stars on it for All Stars 6, and then I'm gonna put a crown and scepter around it."
Fans long considered Ginger to be one of the best queens that had never won, but now that she's off that list, who does she hope prevails next? "I want Peppermint to have a crown so bad," she divulges about the Season 9 fan-fave. "She is such a star in and out of the Drag Race world, and one of my favorite people. So, I would just love to see her succeed. Jujubee [from Season 2] I think deserves one at this point — and again, just another one of my favorite people."
Ginger "loved" this season's Tournament-style format, in which RuPaul Charles split up the 18 contestants into three different brackets. "I personally think it's so fresh. I grew up doing drag in the pageant world — that's where I learned everything. In order to compete for a national pageant, you have to compete and qualify at a prelim, and that's what this felt like with the brackets. They felt like preliminary pageants that led up to the big, final pageant."
When she watched Bracket 2 play out on TV, what was her reaction to seeing Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Jorgeous lie, cheat, and steal in order to earn more points? "I knew that something had happened in Bracket 2, but all of those girls refused to talk about it with the rest of us," Ginger reveals. "They refused to give us the actual tea, so we found out with the rest of the world when it aired. All of us were like, 'Holy sh--. So shady.' Yeah, it's a competition. And to me, that means something different than playing mind games and trying to trick people out of what is theirs. It was good TV, but I don't know that I should be rooting for this or cheering this on."
Speaking of Mistress, her "feud" with Ginger was completely "one-sided," the winner explains. "I didn't even realize it was happening! I could feel her poking me here and there, but it wasn't until it aired that I realized how much I actually got under her skin, which is so funny, because we actually get along outside of all this. We have great conversations and a great relationship, but in the actual competition, I really did affect her that way."
As for her online haters, Ginger approaches them "the same way" she dealt with Mistress. "I'm so focused on what's in front of me, the love and positivity. It's kind of a one-sided fight with all of these people. Let the monsters eat themselves, and I'll just continue to do what I do, and do it to the best of my ability," she says.
Addressing her longtime fans, Ginger declares, "This crown isn't just for me. This crown is for the people that have been with me from day one. I started this 10 years ago, and I may not have the biggest fan base, but I probably have the most loyal. I have grown and changed and learned so much in those 10 years, and I've been so open about everything that I've gone through, that I feel spiritually connected to this fan base. They're the ones that kept pushing me to be better, and it felt like the culmination of 10 years of hard work for this giant, extended family of mine."
Jorgeous is poised to "take over the world," she predicts about her 24-year-old runner-up. "I love Jorgeous, and it was really exciting to be standing next to her. I represent one side of drag, and she represents the complete opposite of that. But together, we really represent the best of what drag has to offer. She loves Drag Race, maybe even more than I do, so I'm sure she will be back, and she has it in her to win. She knows that she has me in her corner if she ever decides to do it again."
All episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 10 are streaming now on Paramount+. The Drag Race franchise received 10 Emmy nominations in 2025, including Best Competition Series for Season 17 and RuPaul for Best Reality Host.
Meet the 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 10' cast
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