'It really was a matter of life or death for me': Alien drag superstar Juno Birch on coming out as trans at school

“I’ve been an alien ever since I was born,” drag artist Juno Birch says as she sits editing videos at her desk in her Castlefield apartment during one of the hottest days of the year so far.

The 29-year-old, originally from Runcorn in Cheshire, is unmistakable as a performer in her now-signature look involving a faceful of lavender blue paint, a bleach blonde Stepford Wife-esque wig, some perfectly-sketched pencil thin eyebrows and, of course, a pair of cat-eye glasses.

She’s basically Jennifer Coolidge if she was an extra-terrestrial with a northern accent and that’s the highest of compliments. And she’s riding high with more than 625,000 Instagram followers and over 31 million views on YouTube.

Coming out as transgender at the age of 13, Juno - both her real name and drag name - has always been told she’s ‘too weird’ for this world or not normal enough. So, she says, she’s learnt to embrace it and is making a career out of it.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

“Runcorn is a very small town so it was a bit of a strange time for me,” Juno, who has now lived in Manchester for seven years, tells the M.E.N. “I didn’t really know what being transgender meant and people certainly didn’t use that word. There was no education in school or on the television. The only time you’d hear about it was when someone was on Big Brother.

“Because of that I didn’t know how to explain how I felt besides knowing I was a girl. I was very lucky in that my parents really weren’t bothered about it. I think they knew I was always going to be very different anyway.”

School, however, was a different experience for Juno. She says that teachers would try to tell her to try and restrain herself and to not dress