This Drag Queen Won Over Our Hearts By Being A Huge Math Nerd On TikTok

Kyne also competed in the first-ever season of Canada's Drag Race.

If reading is fundamental in the drag world, one queen is proving math is, too.

Kyne is a Canadian drag queen based in Kitchener-Waterloo and a contestant on the premiere season of Canada's Drag Race. But before she entered the race, she was winning hearts on social media with her mathematical prowess.

She's amassed more than 700,000 followers on TikTok where she's known for getting into full glam to explain mathematical concepts in a way anyone can understand.

"I never thought that it would blow up the way it did, because the few times I’ve dropped the hint that I’m into math to my drag following, they were just like, 'omg, you’re so smart I could never,'" Kyne told BuzzFeed News.

"You have this stereotype that people in the math community, people in the tech community, are very straight, so you’d think there wouldn’t very much crossover but there it is."

When not performing, Kyne is a mathematical finance major at the University of Waterloo. A self-confessed math nerd, Kyne said she only got started on TikTok back in April.

"I had seen the app through memes on Instagram and Twitter and I was actually very opposed to it — like, This is for the young people," she said. "But the more I kept seeing it, the more I was like, Actually, this is kind of funny."

She dug into her math knowledge right away, covering everything from fractions to explaining that "the limit does not exist" scene in Mean Girls.

@onlinekyne

Reply to @cool.low.suelto a quick lesson on limits, and why the limit does not exist! #meangirls #drag #math #learnontiktok #edutok #education

♬ original sound - onlinekyne

She even gets into stats and topics like how graphs can be misleading.

@onlinekyne

Here’s another misleading graph that I read about just the other day! #math #education #covid19 #coronavirus #drag

♬ original sound - onlinekyne

It's at the point now where people are making requests for new videos.

Her TikTok success built on her YouTube presence, where she already had more than 100,000 subscribers who watch her tutorials for fellow queens.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Her online success shows how much social media can boost a drag queen's career, building a fanbase of people who don't need to see them perform live to fall in love.

Kyne said it also means people who wouldn't necessarily have access to drag IRL can explore from home.

"I think it’s really important. There’s many people out there who want to consume drag — they’re falling in love with drag, but maybe they don’t have a drag club in their city," she said.

"Online everybody is more safe. It’s a safe space to engage with drag."

Kyne has also been an inspiration for fellow math nerds who feel like they don't quite fit in.

"When I was young and struggling with coming out, part of the struggle was I had this dream of being an academic and I thought no one would take me seriously if I was gay, let alone if I was on stage in a two-piece dancing to Lady Gaga," she said. "But that’s the stereotype you have got to break."

She recently reached her biggest audience of all by being cast in the first season of Canada's Drag Race, a Canadian offshoot of Ru Paul's Drag Race. As a huge fan of the show, Kyne said she floored when she got the call.

"I was over the moon. I was jumping off the walls. I was so excited. I felt like I was finally being recognized on a larger platform," she said. "It felt like a really proud recognition of my work."

Sadly, Kyne got the boot on the season's second episode, but she has no regrets.

"I gave them 110% Kyne and I wasn’t they were looking for, but I wouldn’t change anything," she said.


Topics in this article

Skip to footer