Your quirks are your superpowers learn from the lobster

stop

stop it stop it no don’t stop it i need

the attention hello

you’re very good thank you hello my name

is cougar morrison cougar as in rar

and morrison like the scary street in

midland where i grew up

i am a drag queen

it’s one of the most fun jobs in the

world because i get paid to play extreme

dress-ups

it’s also one of the most confronting

jobs in the world because looking like

this there’s no possible place i can go

where i blend in

so if you’ve ever felt like you don’t

quite blend into society good news this

talk is for you

before i was brave

vivacious cougar i was also

very terrified clint

because growing up i’d believed the

world’s biggest lie that if you are

different

you

are doomed

clint grew up in a conservative town

called midland this is a place where if

you wear the color pink you get bashed

i knew i was different

that put me in direct danger

so i had to hide

eventually i’d had enough of hiding and

i came out to my family which went down

like an anchovy flavored milkshake

so dramatic little me packed my life

into two suitcases and boarded a plane

for new york city not knowing where i’d

be living once i got off the plane

there was no plan b

i was convinced i could not go back to

my family so this had to work

in my first 12 months living in new york

city i was working three jobs at the

same time making about nine dollars an

hour

i got so sick i was nearly hospitalized

and i got mugged

i’m very efficient

was this stressful yes

but as i said i didn’t have a plan b so

any time i found myself in these very

difficult stressful situations i somehow

had to make it work

at which point i would always remember

my mum’s voice in my head going

stress is a silent killer stress is so

unhealthy

so you can imagine my confusion with

here i am on the other side of the world

trying to make stress work for me i’m

either being very brave or very stupid

i finally got a sign that i might be

doing

something right and that sign came in

the form of a video

about lobsters

go with me it will make sense

it explained that a lobster’s shell is

also their skeleton on the outside of

their body so the only way a little

lobster can grow and get larger is to

painfully shed that shell and grow a new

one now they do repeat this process many

many times in their lifespan each time

getting a little bit larger and a little

bit stronger

but what

truly fascinated me was that the

stimulus for making this entire

transformation possible

was stress

if there was no stress in a lobster’s

life it would never get

stronger

i was stunned i was also a little bit

concerned that i now shared so many

similarities to a crustacean

and i really hope those similarities did

not include smelling like a crustacean

[Music]

looking back at my time in new york city

i could actually now pinpoint specific

moments where i had certainly shed a

shell

like yep when that happened that was a

shell popping off and when this happened

possibly even two

and as that process was going on and on

something quite remarkable started to

happen there was this crazy idea locked

in the back of my mind and it started to

bubble up to the surface

this idea was locked away for very very

good reason it was scary

it was about taking all the things of

clint that do not fit in and making a

career out of it it’s nuts

but after two years of shedding shells

that idea was not quite as scary anymore

and cougar morrison was born

you see cougar

is made up entirely of everything about

clint that’s different that’s quirky

that does not blend

and instead of hiding and suppressing

those differences cougar takes them

nurtures them

and champions them

cougar put a pair of killer heels on top

of the feet to show you all just how

graceful a boy really can be

clint has very wide hips what does a boy

need with those

but rather than covering them up in a

baggy t-shirt

cougar puts on a corset to accentuate

that curve

when i am cougar morrison and i’m

rocking out all of clint’s differences i

get to say and do all the things that

they would feel

damn scared to do it’s

it’s almost like i become the superhero

version of myself

clint is to clark kent as cougar is to

superman we’re both the same person we

both have all the same abilities but you

will find that one of us has a much

snazzier wardrobe

spoiler alert it’s me

i certainly never would have guessed

growing up that my superhero self would

have be of all things a drag queen

never would have guessed that in a

million years obsessed with wigs and

makeup because when i was growing up

what i was obsessed with was the x-men

oh yes

the theme song the powers

now if you’ve seen the films of the

x-men you’ll remember that these

characters are just regular folk

until they reach adolescence and then

bam they have the most incredible powers

but that is not how you work or how i

work

we are not born with it we have to work

for it

and by the time i did start finally

working as cougar morrison well i had

shed many many shells to get to that

point and i was pretty proud of that in

fact maybe a bit cocky um and i had a

very

humbling realization that i

may have a few more quite a few more to

go and i realized this as i was having

my uber driver dropped me directly in

front of the club week after week

and i was having that done because i was

really scared of how people would react

when they see me

you see being heckled and receiving

abuse is a very

common experience for drag artists

and that bugs me

why are people so offended when they see

me when all i’m doing is walking to work

i desperately want to change their minds

out there on the street but how am i

meant to do that if i only exist hidden

in the dark

in a nightclub with only like-minded

people

so

i leapt out of my comfort zone and i

started doing drag not just in the dark

but in broad daylight too which is a

miracle in itself because drag is not a

daytime sport

fluorescent lights are the enemy

so there i was having

photo shoots in the city and posing for

artworks in the cultural arts center and

it worked the shelves were flying off me

fast and furious i was feeling great my

confidence was soaring that instinct to

hide that clint had well that was still

there

but because of this newfound strength

that instinct was no longer in control

of me

the more that

cougar and clint get to coexist

in this itty-bitty body the more i find

that the line that separates us is

actually blurring now that’s not to say

that clint wakes up every morning

already in a wig and makeup no

that’s to say more that because of

cougars fire and strength clint now has

the courage to be seen

and to stand up for themselves

in fact many of clint’s family and

friends would even say that they enjoy

arguing a bit too much

so

find out what it is about yourself

that you’re hiding

what makes you different what makes you

a bit quirky

think on that find it nurture it and

champion it

will this be a wonderful

all-round glowing positive experience

no it will not

but as we all now know shedding a shell

is not an entirely pleasant experience

so when you do inevitably find yourself

in a very difficult uncomfortable

stressful situation

before you freak out try to remember

that this discomfort is a very natural

part of your growing process and if you

use it correctly

you’ll get a step closer to finding your

very own superhero self

so good luck brave lobsters

thank you

[Music]

you