Yvie Oddly Details New Memoir and ‘Chill’ Relationship With Fans

Yvie Oddly is not the kind of person you’d ever describe as “shy,” but the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum still found it challenging to open up about their past in their new memoir.

“I’m not known for holding my tongue when I have something to say,” Yvie, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the release of All About Yvie: Into the Oddity. “It would surprise people to know that as forthright and open as I am, there’s still things I did not want to put in the book, and there are still things about me that aren’t in the book. Mostly because I’m like, ‘Oh, I guess people don’t need to know how many toes I have.’ That is for me specifically and all of my sex partners who are into odd numbers.”

While that last part is (probably) a joke, Yvie got more serious when describing the writing process as “therapeutic.” In addition to cowriting the book with Michael Bach, the reality star enlisted friends, family and fellow Drag Race veterans to share their thoughts on the phenomenon known as Yvie Oddly.

“I understand why people see therapists,” Yvie quipped. “Now you have somebody to go talk about all your trauma to. They ask you a few questions and you cry at them. It really was therapeutic because it helped me realize exactly how much I was holding onto and how much I really didn’t understand that I was holding onto things.”

Yvie was particularly encouraged by seeing what their friends and colleagues — including Brooke Lynn Hytes and Asia O’Hara — had to say.

“It was so refreshing to be like, ‘OK, the world does see you in all these different ways. You’re not completely unrelatable. You’re not alone,’” Yvie recalled. “And that is something I’ve had to rewire. Every single day I wake up reminding myself that as weird as I feel, I’m not alone.”

According to Yvie, writing the book was actually harder than spilling it all on Drag Race, in part because filming the show felt so immediate.

“The experience [on TV] is you’re literally just living in the moment. Yeah, some things can be scripted and prompted or whatever, but … if I’m angry in the moment, I’m just gonna be angry in the moment, and then I don’t have to deal with that again until it airs,” Yvie explained. “With the book-writing process, there’s lots of time for reflection. I reread the book a number of times before it was in a finished state. And each time you do that, that gives you a chance to look [inside] and be like, ‘Oh, what if my grandma is angry because I come out as not a Christian?’”

While the book delves into Yvie’s upbringing and early days performing in Denver, Drag Race fans will find plenty of tea about the show as well. (Yvie won season 11 in 2019 before returning to the franchise in 2022 for All Stars 7, a.k.a. All-Winners.)

During their original run on Drag Race, Yvie was known as much for clapping back on social media as they were for their looks, a fact that doesn’t go unmentioned in All About Yvie. Yvie still isn’t completely comfortable with fame, but their relationship with fans has “gotten a lot more positive” in the years since season 11.

“There are two big reasons for that. One is that I did very openly, vocally and somewhat rudely place boundaries on how I wanna be treated as a person,” Yvie told Us. “But what’s really changed is the fact that I’ve calmed down, the fact that I don’t feel as used by the world. Even though that is what initially I felt, I understand the relationships between people and their idols, people and things they look up to. We’re chill. … It’s really all about the energy. And if you’re gonna treat me like a human, I’m gonna treat you like the best human I ever met.”

All About Yvie: Into the Oddity hits shelves Wednesday, June 19.