For Florida’s own Ginger Minj, snagging the crown on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10” was the culmination of a dream. Entering the “Tournament of Champions” with a galaxy of fellow queens might have intimidated some queens, but the Minj who entered the Werk Room this time around had her eye firmly on the prize.

I sat down for an extended conversation with the newly crowned Minj and we discussed what made this season different, her big screen and Great White Way dreams, and what it feels like to have “Drag Race” sisters among some of her most vocal detractors.

So many of us related to you when you were talking about the impact that “The Wizard of Oz” has had on you during your bracket’s first episode.

You know, I don’t remember a time in my life where it wasn’t this overarching presence for me. I feel like I came out of the womb in my ruby slippers!

I think it was your reaction to seeing Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in a room, and what you were able to express to them, it truly was what many of us would have said to them as well and we can all relate.

I’ve always tried to be so accessible. I think you and I have talked about it before in the sense that when I was growing up, there was nobody like me on TV or in the movies. I didn’t know what my blueprint was, because there was nobody that had already done it. If I’m given this opportunity, I want to be as authentic and vulnerable as possible. Given the circumstances. I’d like to be accessible because you don’t know how that’s going to affect somebody that was like me, just sitting around, not knowing if there are other people like them that feel the way they do or look the way they do. You don’t know how much that can help push them forward to the more positive.

There was so much talk about you returning to the competition across the board. What truly made you want to return?

There are a couple different reasons. One, I wanted to give the haters another reason to bitch because it’s fun for me. It’s not like it’s new. I mean, 10 years ago on Season 7 from the moment I was announced, all the way through “All Stars 10,” 10 years later, there’s always a group of people who don’t understand why I’m there or what I have to offer. There’s an even larger group of people that do understand me and connect with me and get something out of me taking this opportunity. So I will always do it for them.

The biggest reason for me, honestly, was a couple months before I got the call to come back, I was in and out of the hospital. I truly felt like I was on my death bed. I didn’t know if I was going to recover. I didn’t know what was next for me. And I was just really... sad. I was in a very dark place, and the “Wicked” preview trailer dropped during Super Bowl Sunday. For those 90 seconds, I totally forgot about being sick. I totally forgot about just being in this dark, hopeless, helpless place; it gave me joy. It gave me a reason to kind of get my life under control, get my health under control. And then I got the opportunity to come back and share that with the world.

The “Wicked” thing ended up just being kismet, you know? It was the catalyst for me pulling myself out of that and getting healthy and being able to share that journey. From the beginning of that health journey for me at the beginning of this season, just to watch that as a fan of the show, makes me very excited because I think there’s gonna be a lot of people that can relate to that, and a lot of people are going to take, maybe not all of my choices, but maybe some of them and make them work for themselves.

I saw a video of you doing a Sabrina Carpenter performance and you have completely transformed yourself in so many ways.

I’ve lost 160 pounds, I am no longer pre-diabetic, my blood pressure is under control, I am off of those medications. Completely off of the Prednisone, which is what was actually killing me. My mental health, for the first time in my entire 40 year old life, I feel like I understand who I am. I needed to share that with the world because I feel like those who already love me are going to be able to appreciate me on a deeper level, and those who have never liked me are going to be able to find moments of connection.

You have done “Drag Race” and you have done “All Stars” in various different iterations, but I think this is the iteration that is probably the most chaotic in the best possible way. What did you think when you saw the new format, as well as the competitors in your bracket?

That was truly the deciding factor for me to come back, I’m such an old pageant girl. That’s what I grew up in before “Drag Race” the only way to become famous in the drag world and to have a career that was solely drag was by winning national pageants. With those, you go back, year after year, until you win. In order to compete for the big national, you’ve got to compete and qualify at a preliminary. That’s what this feels like to me. The brackets like prelim pageants where we gather our finalists to go ahead to head. big national right at the end. I thought that that was so exciting to see “Drag Race” catching up to the outside of television drag world by throwing it way back to old school drag rules; I love this format.

To be honest, I’ve gotten phone calls through the years to come back and do other seasons or projects, but I never want to become redundant, I don’t want to continue to do the same thing. To have something that was so wildly different from what I’ve done before was really the icing on that cake that made me say, “Okay, I’ll be there.”

Were there queens that were part of the cast that were newer to you that you had not gotten to know prior to All Stars?

The only one that I hadn’t worked with was Alyssa Hunter. She was the scariest to me as I didn’t have a read on her, I didn’t really know what she had to offer other than the few episodes that she had gotten to do on her season. That was exciting for me, but also kind of scary to try to figure that out so quickly. It’s three weeks, three episodes to learn about each other and to do this whole thing. This was also the first time that I walked into the Werk Room and didn’t think about anybody else. In the past, Season 7, All Stars 2 and All Stars 6, I’ve walked in and gone, “Okay, here’s this girl, this is what she does, this is who she is.” Look over at her section. Those are the things that she’s brought and how does that affect you? Instead of doing that this time, I was like, “We’re gonna put on your mask before you assist anybody else with theirs.” I just wanted to focus on who I am, since I finally feel like I know, and the best way of kind of sharing that with the world. I tried not to really worry too much about who the other girls were and what they were giving.

To be honest because the only person I could get caught up in my head about was myself. At least I know me and what makes me tick, so I know how to fix the things that are giving me anxiety.

Full disclosure, “Double Wide Diva” was in my Top 25 on my Spotify Wrap this year. Is more music coming?

There is new music. It is not going to be country. It’s going to be something a little bit different. Whenever that gets announced, I’m sure I’ll get to talk to you again!

What does winning the “All Stars 10” crown mean to you at this juncture of your career with all that you have accomplished and gone through?

You know, there were a lot of people that saw me winning Season 7, there were a lot of people that saw me winning “All Stars 6” and I never felt it for myself. I truly did not feel like that was supposed to happen. I do think that if it had happened at those points in my life, it would have been great, but I don’t think I would have truly been ready to appreciate it. Now being at such a different place in my life and in my career, I just feel like it’s right at this time. I feel like this is the moment where I’m going to be able to make it mean something. Not just for me, but for everybody else.

It’s such a thrill to be a be able to say “Condragulations” to the winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10!” What do you think you did so differently this time that was the secret sauce to your success?

I trusted myself, to be completely honest with you. The three other times I competed, I was so in my head about. You’re not good enough, you’re never gonna be good enough, all these things. I would spend all of my time looking at the other girls and trying to compare myself and second guessing every decision I would make. This time, I just went, “You know what? By accident, you have made it farther than you ever thought before. So, just trust those things, and don’t worry about what other people are doing.” I just focused on me, focused on what the task was, and just tried to have as much fun as possible.

What was your favorite part of the whole “All Stars 10” experience do you think?

Winning (laughs)! My favorite thing to do this season was the one challenge I didn’t win, which was the Talent Show. That was because, I’ve been this Broadway musical theater brat my entire life, and I felt like it was the first time I really got to share that with the world, through “Drag Race.” It was this really, cathartic, special moment for me, and I think people really got to watch that and understand who I am as a performer more than ever before.

I have told anybody that will listen to me that the talent show was your unofficial Mama Morton/Mama Rose audition tape without a doubt.

Call Me Mama! You know, even things with challenges that were right up my alley in the past, I always second guessed every decision that I would make. We’d finish Snatch Game and the rest of the girls are going, “You won. You really dog walked us all.” I would finish it and go, “I could have said this, I could have done that. Maybe it wasn’t good enough. I probably should have chosen a different character.” Then I would win and go, “Wait, what? Why do you see it for me, but I don’t?” This time, I really saw it for myself. I just kind of lived in every moment.

”Drag Race” is a sisterhood, good, better, and different. I would think something that’s probably been disappointing is some of the feedback coming from inside the “Drag Race” world, particularly from people you have worked and competed with.

It’s disappointing for sure. Look, it’s super competitive in the drag world, particularly in the Drag Race-sphere. I think that people have their own agendas and sometimes they go about them in very disappointing ways.

Particularly with Roxxxy (Andrews), Roxxxy and I have grown up in drag together. I stood by her when she got crowned Miss Continental Plus, I have cheered her on for over two decades, we’ve cheered each other on. So it was very strange hearing that coming from her, simply because, we’ve been in the thick of it together. Speaking of thick, we’re both thick girls. Even though I’ve lost all of this weight, I’m still a Size 16, I’m still a plus size queen. We’ve never, ever, ever, in the history of the U.S. franchise, ever had a plus size winner. So instead of celebrating what we have achieved, we’re focusing on something else that isn’t even a part of the conversation that this moment.

The part of the conversation regarding never having a Hispanic winner is also inaccurate as well….

Yeah, especially since I am a quarter Puerto Rican. I don’t enmesh myself in that culture because it’s not how I was raised; I never claimed to be Latina. I don’t claim it because I haven’t lived in the world long enough. I don’t feel it would be respectful for me to do that; but it is still a part of my makeup. So instead of saying, maybe this is a step in the right direction, it does feel like it’s just looking for an excuse to diminish an achievement that I’ve accomplished.

For you from a personal standpoint, having that diminishment coming from people you have known for many years must be terribly disappointing.

It is, it’s completely disappointing. And not just Roxxxy, throughout the season, there have been girls that have created this false narrative in their head about who I am or how I operate. Anybody who actually knows me knows that I am generous to a fault. I am such an empathic person, I absorb energy, and I try to just make everybody feel loved, welcomed and appreciated at all times. I’ve tried to always do that.

These girls know that, I have done it for them. I’ve cheered them on when nobody else would. So to be on the opposite side of that and to see that it’s not reciprocated, it’s not unexpected, but it is disappointing.

What is next post "Drag Race All Stars" now?

You know, it feels like I haven’t even had a moment to just kind of absorb the win; it’s been such a blur and there’s been so much going on. I signed on to star in a brand new Universal Pictures movie, directed by Adam Shankman so I’ll be doing that soon. I’ve got some club appearances that I’m finishing out, then we’ve got our Hokus Pokus Live! tour, which, in less than a week, we’ve more than half sold the entire tour and AEG is like, “Oh, my gosh, even Sabrina Carpenter and Elton John and all these people that we produce, they don’t even sell tickets this fast. This is great.” It’s such a testament to how hard we’ve worked over the years, you know? We’ve got a couple of Broadway offers on the table and we’re trying to pick the right one. It’s all good. Everything is just so amazing and there’s so many opportunities that are happening so quickly. We’re just trying to make sure we get the ones that serve not only me, but all of the people that have supported me for ten years.

This season finale of “Drag Race All Stars” was even more interesting because we have not seen a finale with two finalists in a while. What do you think was the best thing about going through this with someone like Jorgeous who is a fantastic queen in her own right?

To be completely transparent with with you, I really was kind of hoping for a double win. I thought it was happening and I think I had prepared myself for that because she and I are both rooted in the old school, but we’re both representing completely different aspects of what drag is and what it’s becoming. I think we complement each other really well. That’s why I thought that it would have been such a beautiful experience to kind of share the crown with Jorgeous, simply because I think together, we really encompass everything the drag has to offer.

It was also just really nice going through the experience with her because I’ve seen Jorgeous since the beginning. When she was 16 years old, we did a brunch together that was in Austin, Texas. It was a fundraiser for the Trevor Project, and it was one of her first gigs. To see where she has come from then in such a short amount of time, I just feel like such a proud, big sister. I look at her and I go, “Oh, my God, you’re gonna be completely unstoppable in another couple of years.” She’s already well on her way to that path. To be able to sit beside her and see it happening is just so exciting for me as somebody that has been in her corner for so long.

Last question: what makes this win so much sweeter for you?

It feels like…if I had one in any of those previous seasons, it would not have meant nearly as much as it does now.

Follow Ginger Minj on Instagram @gingerminj