Single Mom Dasharra Bridges Is Behind the Queen Dynamite Avatar on 'Alter Ego'

You've seen The Masked Singer giving celebrities an opportunity to step back onto the stage with their identities concealed, but now Fox is bringing out its companion show, Alter Ego. Instead of highlighting celebrities who have stepped back from the limelight, Alter Ego aims to give everyday people that similar anonymity to belt their hearts out on stage by having them perform as an avatar.

One of the inaugural season's contestants is Queen Dynamite, but who is she off-stage?

Current Atlanta resident Dasharra Bridges is the woman behind the Queen Dynamite avatar. Originally from Rochester, N.Y., she's a single mother who has built herself a platform offering support for other single moms.

Dasharra is the author of Journey of a Single Mother, sharing her first-hand account of raising her children alone from her early 20s and offering advice to other moms in her position.

From there, Dasharra built a platform known as JOASM to connect single mothers together and offer advice beyond her book as they navigate bringing up children alone.

"I’ve always wanted to sing; since [I was] a child, that’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do," she told Fox. "But, you know, life issues came about. I had my children and it was really hard, and I couldn’t really focus on music because I had to work."

In addition to her being a single mom, Dasharra's stage fright was another factor that often got in the way of her pursuing singing more seriously.

“This show is my second chance to do something that I had put on a back burner," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She describes herself as an "introvert," so being able to create an avatar that is the opposite of herself was really an opportunity for her to feel more confident on stage.

“I’m really small. I’m only 4 feet, 11 inches. My avatar is 6 feet, 4 inches!" she added. "I wanted her to be the opposite of me. She’s very fierce. She can own the room.”

Through this avatar, Dasharra said she found a confidence in her stage presence she hadn't felt before.

"[Queen Dynamite is] full of sass. She is someone that will take the stage; she is not afraid of anything," she told Fox. "You can give her any song, and she’s going to sing it and always put her spin on it."

She said that performing through an avatar in front of judges like Alanis Morissette, will.i.am, Nick Lachey, and Grimes helped give her the confidence she needed in her own abilities to get over her stage fright.

“I broke that fear! It’s gone!" she said. "The vocal coaches, the producers helped me. They helped with my mind. It was more than a singing show. It helped all of us on the show work through our issues. I’m now singing notes I never thought I could sing!”

Watch Dasharra make her stage debut on Alter Ego, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.