This story is part of IndyStar’s ongoing series highlighting local influencers. Got a favorite you want to see featured? Nominate them here. 

In reality TV’s modern era, the end of the competition is far from the end of the game. The real work for contestants begins outside the TV bubble, phone back in hand and internet access restored.  

Social media is where reality TV contestants like Ciara Myst can hit their stride. Indianapolis’ “shapeshifting superstar” finished 11^th on season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” but Myst, a Purdue University graduate and Indianapolis resident with roots in Indy Drag Theater, has since parlayed deep Indy roots and momentum from the show into steady work and new projects capped with a headlining performance at this year’s Indy Pride. 

Ciara Myst, 32, is a drag artist who gained a national profile as a contestant on the most recent season of “Drag Race,” the Emmy-winning reality competition show where drag performers contend for the title of America’s next drag superstar. With a lifelong love of drawing, comic books and horror movies and a background as a special effects makeup artist, Myst began experimenting with drag while still living in Atlanta. She moved to Indianapolis during the pandemic and quickly became a staple in the local drag scene, building her resume for years before getting the “Drag Race” nod.  

With a lifelong love of drawing, comic books and horror movies and a background as a special-effects makeup artist, Myst first tried drag in 2019 while living in Atlanta and began pursuing it seriously in 2021. She moved to Indianapolis during the pandemic and quickly became a fixture in the local drag scene.

More: Meet the Indy drag queen competing for the ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ crown

Since the show, Ciara Myst has ramped up her already-active Instagram account (@the_ciara_myst) and YouTube channel (@the_ciara_myst) taking fans behind the scenes of her drag. She sat down with IndyStar to dish on her “Drag Race” experience, her rules for handling online hate and why she’s sticking around in Indianapolis for a while.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Question: How did you get started in drag? What were those early  days like?

Answer: I started as what you might call a “bedroom queen.” I was on YouTube doing a series called “Dabbling in Drag” where I was, every month, building a look head to toe, curating and art directing a photoshoot as a way to propel my own artistry and challenge myself beyond just, “What could I do if and when I want to do this?” Having that schedule and challenging myself to do something new every month is really what built Ciara Myst aesthetically from the ground up.  

It wasn’t until all of the Covid bans were lifted that we started to convene with the community here. Being a transplant from Atlanta meant we didn’t know a lot of the folks in the queer community yet, so we were eager to make those types of connections. It was through an organization called Indy Drag Theater that my partner and I auditioned for “Into the Woods.” That was the gateway for us to meet so many other artists in the community as well as for me to start my performance career here. I had been a performer on stage my whole life, so that was not something new to me. That unlocked the ability for me to engage with the community at large. Then it was performing at Almost Famous, it was hosting gigs. From there it was just sort of, “I’m really loving this. How can I continue to expand on this?”  

You’re consistently active on social media, and you post plenty of behind-the-scenes content and fun extras. Where do you get the inspiration for these ideas, and do you consider yourself an influencer? 

I love creating content. I’ve always loved YouTube. I’m a millennial, so YouTube was kind of the bread and butter of what we were doing with the little handi-cam, just throwing videos together. That aspect of capturing art for fun and sharing it with others was something I always enjoyed. Starting drag, I was like, “This is a place where I can do this.” It became sort of my first stage. 

The title “influencer” feels a little strange to me. For folks out there who want to be an influencer, just be yourself. Any influence that I have on other folks is just a byproduct of my artistry and being who I am. I don’t want to persuade people to go and buy something.  

As social media and content creation and influencing have all become these career paths, drag queen trajectory has also found itself on that path. In order to have longevity, there is now an entire digital platform that most people have to curate. Historically, it was bar performances or theater venue or cabaret or whatever. The digital audience is just a new avenue for folks to perform.  

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We have to talk about “Drag Race.” How was your experience on the show? Was it strange to see yourself on TV in real time? 

“Drag Race” was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. It sounds so cheesy, hokey pokey to say that, but I think so many people assume that you go on this TV show and you either come home a winner or you come home traumatized. For me, I was neither. It was like summer camp in the best way possible. To go no phones, which was a gift, and create art every day with a group of artists that I adore and that have become my best friends was such a special, unique experience.  

When you go to “Drag Race,” you relinquish a lot of control in the challenges and what you’re doing, in how you’re going to be presented to the world and how the world is going to react to you. Those are three layers that you sacrifice control, and those things define how the world is going to receive you. It’s a very unique, liberating and challenging experience to say, “I have to be comfortable with whatever happens on this, and I have to be myself no matter what.” 

“Drag Race” is an exciting opportunity, (but) it is a gig. We (the season 18 cast) approached it like, “Yes, this is a great platform. It is an exciting opportunity. It is also a job. It’s a gig.” Folks maybe assume that you go on this show and your whole life is changed and you move to New York, you move to LA, you’re in Hollywood and “Drag Race” is giving you all of these things. Those people worked to get those things. “Drag Race” was just an introduction for us. 

“Drag Race” comes with a very engaged fanbase. How did you handle all the sudden attention online as your season was airing, specifically negative comments?  

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Indianapolis Drag queen Ciara Myst shares her top three accounts to follow

Indianapolis Drag queen Ciara Myst shares her top three accounts to follow in a video highlighting her favorite creators and influences

You have to create very intentional boundaries. And you will not do that. You will break your boundary, and then you will get your fi-fi’s hurt, and then you’re like, “That’s why I needed to create that boundary.” We’re excited by the idea of like, “Oh my gosh, I want to hear what people think about this.” There is an overwhelming amount of positive, but the loudest voices online are the ones who are passionately disgruntled, who have access to a computer and a lot of free time and need to turn in their homework. 

There was an excitement when this project was coming out, and then very quickly you are exposed to the negative comments about you or anything that you do. It can be very discouraging, so a lot of us talked about ways to create digital boundaries around what types of comments could come into our feed, what types of comments we could see online, what types of websites could we access. That way, when you’re kind of lonely and you’re like, “What did people think about this?” Your internet is like, “Baby, we set the boundary months ago. You don’t need to look for this.”  

I treat my internet like my house. If you want to come to my house, knock on my door and tell me, “I hate that thing that you did, and I think you’re ugly and terrible at makeup.” That’s pretty bold. Most people feel very safe to do that in a digital way. Don’t come to my house and leave hate mail. Don’t graffiti my wall. Don’t leave negativity here because I don’t have room for it.  

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Your drag is very intertwined with political activism. Was this always a goal for you? 

In school, we were always taught to be aware of politics. It wasn’t something that I was necessarily as staunchly involved in as I am now. I think the first segue was coming into my queerness and realizing that there is an importance to your community, to your fellow people that comes being queer. A lot of that is respect for the history of where we come from and the people who fought for access to things that I can take advantage of now. 

I think drag just doubled down on it. When I think about the people who were the pillars of the community or the pioneers, it is the trans people who come before us. It is the drag queens. It is the drag artists. Drag offers the community a reason to gather. When it comes to spreading information, sharing education, sharing resources, drag shows were the place to do that. I knew if I was to participate in the art form of drag, it couldn’t just be to be the most beautiful person in the room — that’s just a given. It had to be a commitment to championing the causes of queerness and being an ally to all other marginalized communities. 

Reality TV contestants often move to New York or Los Angeles after their shows air in search of bigger opportunities, but you’ve remained in Indianapolis. Why? 

BeelzeBabe is a fabulous king here in Indy, and he said, “They already have it in New York. They already have it in LA. Why should the people of Indiana or wherever not have access to amazing art just because they don’t live in one of those hubs?” I thought that was such an astute answer because people here crave creativity. They crave art.  

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The philosophical answer is that we need great art here in Indiana, and I would be humbled to be a part of that. And I’ve been so privileged to participate in amazing art here already. The practical answer is we’re just a hop skip out of “Drag Race.” People think you go on TV and you’re a millionaire. That reality is not true. We are still building and growing our work and our business. Where that takes us is to be determined, but the home right now for us is Indianapolis, and I love that. I have a drag family here. I have an amazing community here. To choose to take a chance and move on the “what if” of where we go doesn’t feel as enticing as somebody who’s in their 30s.  

You’ve said you want to help revitalize the Indianapolis drag scene. Have you seen any progress, and do you think your “Drag Race” run is helping the city gain traction? 

In decades’ past, we had many other avenues for drag to happen in Indianapolis. That’s simply not the case anymore.  

There are so many systemic things that need to adjust in order to make Indianapolis a sustainable hub for drag artistry. We’re at such an interesting crossroads where there’s so much drag but there’s so few places for people to consume it. The younger folks who are excited about drag on TV, they’re not as excited about going out in public, or going to a bar and paying cover as they are gathering with their friends and watching it on TV. Live drag, local drag is suffering, especially under the current climate. 

I was hopeful that we would see more excitement come out of my TV appearance, and we did see that. That’s the change that brought me a lot of joy. There were more folks who found pride in Indiana than maybe there were before. We saw people have that passion and enthusiasm when they knew there were Hoosiers on TV. The trick is how to capture that all the time. It’s not just the Hoosiers on TV, it’s the Hoosiers who are performing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at your local bar.  

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Fast facts: Who is @the_ciara_myst? 

Name: Ciara Myst 

Age: 32 

Hometown: Indianapolis 

Content: Drag, makeup, fashion, pop culture 

Favorite Indy spots: Tsaocaa, Beauty 4 U, Monon Trail  

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Three local creators she recommends: Indy Drag Theater (@theindydragtheater), Haus of Diva, Pancha’s Penthaus (@penthaus69) 

Advice to potential creators: Be yourself, and don’t give any energy to the negative comments.  

Contact IndyStar Pop Culture Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@indystar.com. Follow her on X @hmb_1013.

LAWRENCE, Ind. (WISH) — An Indiana Gulf War veteran on Thursday said a special American Legion challenge shows there is nothing Americans can’t do as a team.

Ron Patterson served in the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm and is now the commander of the Indiana Department of the American Legion. For the past few months, he has been marching toward a total of 250 miles while wearing the infantry backpack he carried in the Army, adding weight each time. He said it’s his contribution to the American Legion’s national USA 250 Challenge.

“The thing I dreaded the most (when I was in the military) was the ruck march,” he said. “There’s a lot of pain when you do a ruck march. It made me think about the pain that our veterans with children in the household, if they’re struggling financially, what kind of pain are they going through? So this ruck, the pain that I feel in my shoulders, kind of reminds me of the service of people before me and the service of the people who are going to come after me.”

Launched last July, the USA 250 Challenge involves activities centered around physical fitness, mental wellness and community service. Donations support the Legion’s Veterans & Children Foundation, which provides one-time financial help to veterans who have children and are facing difficulty meeting basic needs. Patterson said he has already exceeded his personal goal of raising $20,000 for the foundation.

On Thursday afternoon, News 8 accompanied Patterson as he completed the final mile of his ruck march challenge, with an additional 22 pounds of weight added to represent the 22 veterans who die by suicide every day. Patterson’s route took him from the Legion’s Indiana Department headquarters into a neighborhood that was once home to officers’ housing when Fort Benjamin Harrison was still active.

Besides the monetary donations, Patterson said he has recruited new members for the Legion, the American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of the American Legion.

“Some of the great things I learned on the USA 250 Challenge, people are interested in what you’re doing,” he said. “When you’re engaging people like that, they’re genuinely interested in what you do and what the American Legion does.”

As America’s semiquincentennial nears and participants complete challenges, he said he wants Americans to understand just how truly exceptional this country is.

“America is a strong, amazing country. And there’s nothing we can’t do if we work together as a team,” he said. “So I feel that this Legion USA 250 really brought the Legion back together to work as a team to accomplish great goals.”

Patterson said the challenge runs through Independence Day, so you still have time to donate or to complete your own USA 250 Challenge.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s former top deputy in city government is now working at an engineering firm run by major Hogsett donors that has received contracts worth up to $62 million since the mayor took office.

The top Hogsett official, former chief of staff Dan Parker, signed many of those contracts himself while he led the Department of Public Works from 2017 to 2022.

Parker’s move to American Structurepoint, about a month after leaving his job as Hogsett’s No. 2 at the end of 2025, comes as one of the company’s contracts with the city is facing scrutiny for being too expensive.

An analysis by IndyStar and Mirror Indy found the Indianapolis-based firm’s tens of millions of dollars worth of deals make it one of the largest city contractors over the past decade.

Meanwhile, the company’s political action committee and two of its executives, President Cash Canfield and Senior Executive Vice President Greg Henneke, are major donors to Hogsett. Collectively since 2014, about $368,000 in campaign donations have come from those executives, one of their spouses and a political action committee run by Structurepoint.

Multiple ethics experts said Parker’s move to Structurepoint raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Jeff Hauser, founder of the national ethics watchdog group the Revolving Door Project, said it’s “definitely concerning” that Parker began working for a top city contractor and major donors to the mayor shortly after leaving his high-profile role as a public servant.

“There is a concern about how he might have been behaving in anticipation of leaving government service,” Hauser said. He compared it to dating: “If you are planning to ask somebody out in the future, that could impact your behavior before you actually ask them out.”

It’s unclear whether Parker is working on city-related matters for Structurepoint. Neither the company, nor Parker, responded to repeated emails, calls and questions sent by IndyStar/Mirror Indy. Parker said “no comment” twice when approached by a reporter at an Indy Chamber event on June 23 before walking away.

A new IndyStar/Mirror Indy investigation has also raised ethical questions surrounding Parker’s role in how city contracts were awarded. The reporting found Hogsett’s campaign fundraiser arranged for donors’ project wish lists to be hand-delivered to Parker when he led DPW. Within months, some of the firms received contracts included on the wish lists. The deals, approved by the city’s Board of Public Works, were signed by Parker.

If Parker’s working on city contracts at Structurepoint, his public-sector experience could give the company an unfair advantage, said Danielle Caputo, senior legal counsel for ethics at the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center.

Because Parker — a longtime Hogsett ally and former Indiana Democratic Party chairman — understands the inner workings of the Hogsett administration, he could know how to appeal to decision-makers with whom he recently had close professional relationships, Caputo said. In at least one major city, San Francisco, even communication between the city and Parker at this juncture would be forbidden to prevent favoritism.

“You don’t want a contract to be accepted just because the deputy mayor … is best friends or was close work confidants with the person who’s now choosing where the contract goes,” Caputo said. “That’s not how the government works and that’s not what’s in the best interest of the public.”

City lacks some revolving door guardrails

It’s not uncommon for elected officials and past government employees to accept lucrative roles in the private sector, experts noted. But many experts recommend cooling-off periods that prohibit former public officials and employees from quickly cashing in on their experience in private-sector roles with government contractors.

The city’s ethics code doesn’t require employees to wait to take a job with companies they oversaw or awarded contracts to while in their government role, despite Hogsett campaigning on such an idea in 2015 during his first mayoral bid.

The city’s rules do, however, prevent former employees from working on “particular matters” such as public works projects, economic development deals and other transactions in which they were “personally and substantially” involved.

But city attorneys can waive these ethics restrictions for past employees if their involvement is found not to be “adverse” to the city.

Hogsett spokesperson Aliya Wishner said Parker has not received a waiver, but she didn’t answer several questions about the situation, including when Parker informed the mayor he was applying for a job at Structurepoint and whether he was then shielded from decisions involving the firm. She also did not say whether he’d sought a waiver.

“The city does not control where city employees go after they leave the enterprise and cannot prohibit people from working where they want,” Wishner said in a written statement. “Nothing in the ethics ordinance prohibits former employees generally from earning a living in the private sector following their employment with the city-county, with the exception of activities to lobby the city-county for a period of one year.”

State law is more restrictive than the city’s ordinance. It requires a one-year cooling-off period before state employees can work for or lobby a company if they negotiated or held an administrative role over a contract involving that company while the employee worked for the state. That restriction applies to former state employees, officers and special state appointees, who may seek a waiver from the state ethics commission.

Hauser said the goal of such ethics rules isn’t to stop people from making a living in the private sector. It’s about protecting taxpayers.

“There are many construction and engineering jobs in the world that are not connected to government service,” Hauser said. “The question is whether this person should be involved in a firm that is so focused on public contracting.”

It’s not the first time former Hogsett administration workers have quickly gone on to work for city contractors.

IndyStar and Mirror Indy previously reported that Hogsett’s first chief of staff, Thomas Cook, did not seek a waiver after leaving the city in 2020. He went to work for a Hogsett-connected law firm, Bose McKinney & Evans, where he helped the firm’s developer clients secure millions of dollars worth of city incentives.

Past reporting from the news outlets also showed attorneys for Hogsett went on to work for law firms that do business with the city, where they then performed similar work under contract. The city previously said, in those cases, that the attorneys were either granted waivers or that the legal work they did after they left city employment was different enough as to not trigger the ethics ordinance.

‘Astronomical’

Parker’s move to the company comes as one of the city’s contracts with Structurepoint has drawn scrutiny.

The broad contract for stormwater consulting services will pay American Structurepoint up to $14.1 million over nearly four years, with most contractors earning hourly wages in the $100 to $300 range.

The latest amendment to the Structurepoint contract was signed in late 2025 when Parker was Hogsett’s chief of staff, roughly a month before he started working for Structurepoint. It’s unclear what, if any, role he played in its negotiation.

For consulting services, DPW puts out a “request for qualifications” to firms in the industry, according to the agency. Department leaders choose a company based on a variety of factors. Then those contracts must be approved by the Board of Public Works, an entity made up of City-County Council and mayoral appointees, and signed by the DPW director.

The contract’s price tag caught the attention of Susie Cordi, a Board of Public Works member who has previously campaigned for Hogsett.

Cordi called the cost “astronomical” in a November 2025 meeting where she urged DPW leaders to fill vacant positions. She lamented that the city was paying higher hourly rates to private contractors instead of more cost-effective wages to DPW employees.

The city defended the contract. Current DPW Director Todd Wilson, who worked for American Structurepoint from 2007 to 2013, told IndyStar/Mirror Indy that the city lacks staffers to perform all the needed work.

Specialized employees like engineers can earn higher salaries in the private sector. He said DPW is working to boost recruiting and increase city salaries to better compete and rely less on contractors going forward.

“But I don’t see in any world where we would completely eliminate staff augmentation from our program,” Wilson said.

DPW spokesperson Kyle Bloyd said the agency’s extensive contracts with Structurepoint and other companies are crucial to the timely execution of DPW’s five-year infrastructure improvement plan worth about $1 billion.

Still, Cordi called the contracts “money in Structurepoint’s pocket” in an IndyStar/Mirror Indy interview.

“We’re understaffed,” she said, “and now Structurepoint is reaping all these benefits from us not being able to keep our engineers.”

Mirror Indy reporter Peter Blanchard and IndyStar reporter Hayleigh Colombo contributed reporting.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.

Contact IndyStar Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at jtsmith@indystar.com. Follow him on X @jordantsmith09.

Emily Hopkins is a senior reporter at Mirror Indy. You can reach them by phone or Signal at 317-790-5268 or email at emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis or on Bluesky @emilyhopkins.bsky.social.

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