Happy Birthday to Janet Mock

Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, director, producer, and transgender rights activist. Let us wish her a very Happy Birthday.

Janet Mock was born on 10 March 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Assigned male at birth, Mock began her transition as a freshman in high school and funded her medical transition by earning money as a sex worker in her teens. She underwent gender-confirming surgery in Thailand at the age of 18 in the middle of her first year in college. Mock earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2004 and a Master of Arts in Journalism from New York University in 2006.

After graduating from New York University, Mock started working at People magazine, where she was a staff editor for more than five years. Eventually Janet Mock became a contributing editor at Marie Claire magazine, where she has written articles about racial representation in film and television as well as trans women’s presence in the global beauty industry.

In February 2014, Janet Mock’s first book, a memoir, came out. It was named ‘Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More’. It is the first book written by a trans person who transitioned as a young person. Redefining Realness made The New York Times bestseller list. In 2017, ‘Surpassing Certainty’, Janet Mock’s second memoir, was published.

Janet Mock also hosted two television shows and appeared as a guest in several others. She is also featured in a 2011 documentary called ‘Dressed’. She is an active fighter for transgender rights and produced the documentary film ‘The trans list’. In 2018 Janet Mock became the writer, director, and producer on the show named ‘Pose’, and is the first trans woman of color hired as a writer for a TV series in history. She has been awarded various accolades in her life.

–Staff Reporter