ABOUT JANET MOCK
Before Janet Mock became the best-selling author, director, producer, and advocate we know today, she was a little girl in Hawaii learning how to navigate a world full of gendered expectations designed to control, silence, and shame her.
Although she knew from a very young age that she was a girl, Janet didn’t have the language to explain how she felt until she met her best friend Wendi. Wendi asked Mock if she was māhū, a person who embodies “both kāne (male) and wahine (female) spirit” in Native Hawaiian, or as Janet Mock explains it, “a label for those who live outside the gender binary.” Native Hawaiian culture has a vast spectrum of gender expressions and identities, and this helped Janet feel more comfortable expressing her true self, despite the pushback she received at home and in school.
Agency and Storytelling
After graduating from New York University, Janet started her career by working as a staff editor at People magazine. She quickly gained public attention in 2011 when she talked about being a trans woman in a Marie Claire article, the title of which prompted a larger discussion about the media’s tendency to sensationalize trans narratives, often portraying them as a dramatic or ominous secret being unveiled. In a later interview with Marie Claire in 2020, Janet explains that although telling her story was an intentional decision, it was “one that I kind of felt like I backed into, in a way, that did strip me of agency and voice;” however, Janet notes that “To have a mainstream magazine say that this is an important story to tell in this particular time… People weren’t really talking about transness in the way that we talk about it now.”
In 2014, Janet tells her story and talks about her experience as a Black and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) trans woman in her New York Times best-selling memoir, Redefining Realness, the first book written by a trans person who transitioned at a young age. In addition to her reflections on gender standards, beauty standards, respectability politics, and traditional (heteronormative) gender norms, Janet’s memoir emphasizes that, “There is no universal women's experience.”
"Gender Equality is really the root of my public podium,” said Janet in a 2021 interview with Forbes. “It's the root of everything that I do in media as a storyteller, as a writer, as a journalist." In her work, Janet shows that everyone struggles with gendered expectations, and she hopes to release the stigma surrounding it and “encourage people to step more fully and authentically into who they know themselves to be.”
(via CNN)
With this message in mind, Janet continues telling her story and using her platform to highlight the stories of other trans women, particularly in her television show Pose. As a writer, director, and producer on Pose, Janet became the first trans BIPOC woman hired as a writer for a TV series, and in 2019, Janet signed a three-year deal with Netflix giving them exclusive rights to her TV series, making her the first trans BIPOC woman to secure a major studio deal.
WE ARE ALL STORYTELLERS
We are so excited to hear Janet Mock share her story and her experiences with us at this year's Inspire Luncheon on September 18! The Luncheon is our biggest fundraising event of the year, and donations support YWCA programs across King and Snohomish Counties like emergency and permanent housing; domestic violence services; and job training.
In-person and virtual tickets are still available, so get yours today and stay tuned for our conversation with Janet Mock!
Ana Rodriguez-Knutsen is the Content Specialist for YWCA's Marketing & Editorial team. From fiction writing to advocacy, Ana works with an intersectional mindset to uplift and amplify the voices of underrepresented communities.
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