Welcome back!!! Today’s Queen, I must admit, I didn’t know much about her!! However, I am so glad I was able to learn more! She is absolutely stunning, beyond smart, she has the presence and force that many aspire to, she is the change maker we ALL can be, and might I add she is dripping with #BlackGirlMagic!! She is none other than The Ms. Janet Mock, a writer, director, an Executive Producer, a JACK of ALL trades if you will! She’s also the New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs, Redefining Realness (2014) and Surpassing Certainty (2017)!

Humble Beginnings: This Queen’s story starts a little different than the others! Not because she is of any lesser significance, but because her story is different! Janet Mock was born March 10, 1983 (Pisces Salute) as Charles Mock! And this is where her story takes a turn! Janet, born Charles Mock VI, in Honolulu HI, is the second child to Hawaiian Mother Elizabeth Mock, and African American Father Charles Mock III. Janet spent most of her life in Hawaii, with occasional trips to California and Texas. In her book she stated that she knew early on that she was in the “wrong” body! Growing up in Hawaii, she had many transgender friends and teachers! In an article written by Kierna Mayo Janet said “ Once, when I was 5-years-old, a little girl who lived next door to my grandmother dared me to put on a muumuu and run across a nearby parking lot. So I did. I threw it on, hiked it up in one hand, and ran like hell.” later in this same article Janet stated that as she got older, it became clearer that her father did not support her, when asked “ you’re not gay are you” Janet, at the time said she did not know what this meant, but based on the tone in which her father asked she knew the correct answer was NO, and that’s exactly what she said! During her sophomore year of high school she underwent her first round of Hormone Replacement Therapy or HRT that she got from her friend Wendi, who was also transgender, and had graduated to HRT injections!! Albeit risky, Janet could not stand the body she was trapped in! Ja

“I knew there could be nothing worse than living another day with a penis dangling between my legs.”- Janet Mock

This Queen was determined to get what she wanted!! A TRUE fighter, she saved up enough money to purchase a plane ticket to Thailand and have her surgery the summer before her freshman year of The University of Hawaii! YOU GO GIRL!! Go after what you want! She continued through and graduated in 2004 and then went to NYU and received her MA in Journalism in 2006!

Early Career: Upon graduating from NYU she was hired by People as a staff editor turned web editor! She stayed with people for 5 years. After her time at People had come to an end Queen Janet decided that she wanted to share her story and she wrote a memoir entitled 'Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. This was her FIRST book, which released Feb 2014 and made the NY Times Bestseller list!! And just like that she made history!! Being the author of the FIRST biography written by a trans person!!! GIRLLLLLLLL YOU BETTA!!! Her book was even dripping in glamor, receiving the Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association, and being nominated for the Lambda Literary Award , ANNNNDDDDDD winning a Book Prize by the Women’s Way! Janet, girl, I need you to slow down, I can’t handle all this magic!! After that, she began speaking out about transgender violence and addressing the LGBT community! She delivered the “Lavender Commencement” speech at the University of Southern California! She also started the Twitter campaign “GirlsLikeUs” to give trans women a voice where they feel they don’t have one! Ms. Janet later became a member of the board of directors of the Arcus Foundation. Which is a foundation that supports LGBT rights!

Today: She may be young but she READDYYYYYYY!!!! She has charged forward with a fearlessness that is unmatched! From being one of the few transgenders featured on the cover of CANDY, and then creating the Beauty Beyond Binaries column for Allure magazine! This column held it’s own, by shunning ALL the unrealistic beauty standards set by society! My girl has also started a podcast collaboration entitled Never Before, with Pineapple Street Media!! 2019 was the year of THE JANET!! She crushed ANOTHA ONE (in my DJ Kahlid voice) by signing a historic deal with Netflix making her the first trans women to reach such a milestone! The deal with Netflix includes creating and producing her own television projects! #TheSauce! She was also given The Artist of the Year Award (Harvard University) and named one of the Women in Entertainment Power 100 (Hollywood Reporter) and she didn’t stop there! She snagged a spot on the TIME’s 100 most influential people, Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list, and got the cover of some of the most influential magazines of the day!

Where to Find More: If this just wasn’t enough for you, because I KNOW it wasn’t for me!! You can learn more about Ms. Janet Mock right here!

Ms. Mock, you are an inspiration to many young girls! You have proven that with the right amount of focus and determination you can rise above the naysayers and conquer, crush, and annihilate your dreams!!

As always, thank you ALL for allowing me to share my passions with you and I hope that my blog inspires you to go after what you want and believe in yourself in every aspect, because I believe in you! Now strike your POWER POSE 🕺💃- We got this, NOW LET’S GET TO IT!!!

Keep Shining Loves

-💕 Jazz

References

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