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MISS VANJIE<br />
It’s rare that the contestant who goes<br />
home first on any given season of RuPaul’s<br />
Drag Race gets to make a significant<br />
impact among the fans. There are<br />
exceptions, like Shangela Laquifa Wadley,<br />
who went home first in Season 2 only<br />
to come back two more times to snag<br />
America’s hearts.<br />
But one queen on season 10 took her 90<br />
minutes of screen time and spun it into<br />
Internet gold. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo,<br />
the first queen to be eliminated last<br />
season, made an impression on the fans<br />
with her larger-than-life attitude and her<br />
interactions in the workroom with the<br />
other queens.<br />
But it was after the queen found herself<br />
sashaying away from the competition that<br />
a meme was born. Walking backwards<br />
down the runway and jooshing her hair,<br />
Mateo exclaimed the now-iconic phrase<br />
“Miss Vanjie” three times before finally<br />
departing the competition. Her fabulous<br />
exit sent the Internet into a tailspin,<br />
constantly referencing and joking about<br />
the moment until people who didn’t<br />
watch Drag Race started questioning what<br />
"Miss Vanjie” meant.<br />
RuPaul even found himself unable<br />
to contain his thoughts on the rising<br />
cultural importance of the “Miss Vanjie”<br />
phenomenon, taking to his Twitter<br />
account multiple times throughout the<br />
week to spread the gospel of “Miss<br />
Vanjie.”<br />
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