Janet Mock

Janet Mock speaks at The 2016 Women Write Now Gala

Janet Mock (1983-) is an author of two memoirs, TV host, a contributing editor and columnist for Allure magazine, and a transgender activist intent on tackling stigma through storytelling.

## Biography

Janet Mock was the second born in her family. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father is African American and her mother native Hawaiian. Mock was born a boy, but began her transition from male to female when she was a freshman in high school. In order to pay for her surgeries she worked as a sex worker. When she was 18 she underwent sex reassignment surgery in Thailand. She chose the name Janet after Janet Jackson. She got a Bachelor of Arts in fashion merchandising from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a Master of Arts in Journalism from New York University.

Mock started her career at *People* magazine as a staff editor and worked there for five years. She shifted careers from journalist to media advocate when she came out publicly as a trans woman in a *Marie Clare* article.

After signing her first book deal for *Redefining Realness* she left her job at *People* and went on to host TakePart Live and her own culture show, So POPular! It was a digital web series that looked at cultural issues and broke down the issues people like to pretend they're too smart to talk about.

Her two memoirs, *Redefining Realness* and *Surpassing Certainty* follow her journey as a transgender youth and the lessons she learned and her success as she continued into her twenties learning how to advocate for herself.

## Notable Works

Mock has written two memoirs Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love, & So Much More and Surpassing Certainty.

*Redefining Realness* was her first memoirpublished in 2014 whichfocuses on her journey toward womanhood during her teenage years.Taking her real life experiences she goes into the joys and difficulties she faced being a transgender youth. Her take on everything is real and unapologetic account of her experiences.Mock juxtaposes the personal and the political with a dose of academic theory and pop culture. She reflects on her experiences as someone who transitioned in adolescence. She has used this collection of stories and the trajectory of her life and how it fits into the context and topics of racism, sexism, and transphobia. *Redefining Realness* was a *New York Times* bestseller and embodies Mocks vision of greater acceptance and of ourselves.

*Surpassing Certainty* is her second memoir that was published in 2017. This one picks up where her last memoir left off starting in her early twenties. It is a candid reflection of her twenties. The memoir starts off a few months before her twentieth birthday. It goes through how she is adjusting as a college student after transition and working at a night club. The first man she is with romantically serves as the backdrop for Janet’s progression through her early twenties. It encompasses all of the universal growing pains such as falling in and out of love, living away from home, and figuring out what she wants to *do*with her life. This memoir served as her blueprint in figuring herself out. This was the time she was trying to figuring out how to advocate for herself before she could advocate for others. Throughout the book she talks about subjects that she was once taught that she was supposed to be quiet and ashamed about. This memoir served as her journey of realizing and learning more about herself, her body, and trying to figure out her life before she became a spokesperson for anyone else.

## Controversy

In August an interview with Kim Kardashian was released which caused a lot of commotion over the photos her dressed as Jackie Kennedy. The interview touched on raising black and privacy issues with constantly being in the public eye. Mock got backlash from many because they didn't understand her choice to conduct the interview with Kim in the first place because of her history with culture-vulturing and problematic images. Mock defended herself on Twitter stating she did the interview to discuss family, beauty, and business. She also states how she wasn't apart of naming the article or the pictures used for it and was solely there to conduct the interview.

In July the popular morning showing The Breakfast Club had a conversation about trans women. Comedian Lil Duval was asked what he do if a women he was dating revealed herself to be trans four months into the relationship and he responded saying she would die. Mock did not appreciate a show that a show that advocates for the safety and lives of black people, had it's host laugh as guest advocated for the murder of black trans women. Mock was also brought up in the interview as well as her book was shown to Duval and he proceeded to misgender her and continue to advocate for the violence he previously stated. Janet responded to these comments in an open letter to Allure stating, "Your willful ignorance will not stop me from being who I am. My sisters and I are here and we exist, and you will not diminish our light and our brilliance.”

## Sources

* http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/02/03/janet\_mock\_on\_redefining\_realness\_an\_interview\_with\_the\_transgender\_author.html

* https://janetmock.com/surpassingcertainty
* http://www.latimes.com/books/features/la-et-jc-janet-mock-surpassing-certainty-20170619-story.html
* https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/janet-mock-defends-interview-with-kim-kardashian-west-1798530999
* http://people.com/bodies/janet-mock-open-letter-the-breakfast-club-transgender-comments/
* https://janetmock.com/bio/