Ms. Mock Your Absolutely Stunning!

It Gets Better. Love, Janet Mock from Sunnysidefarm on Vimeo.

Courtesy of Janet Mock.com

Janet Mock is a writer and a journalist, a daughter and a girlfriend, a believer in happily ever after and a vintage shopping enthusiast. She’s also a woman of transsexual experience.

Janet works as an Associate Editor for PEOPLE.com. Outside the cubicle, Janet weaves her daily A-ha! moments into stories on her blog Fish Food For Thought — named after her forthcoming book Fish Food: A Memoir, about her adolescent journey through genders in high school. Living in New York City, Janet has a BS from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an MA from New York University.

Janet Mock: Her Story in Her Own Words
I was welcomed into this world as the firstborn son of my parents in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1983. They named me Charles, but my earliest memories involve my first playmate Janet, the girl I always knew myself to be. Janet became my very first conviction, a secret imaginary friend who would not be ignored.

As puberty began to hit in middle school, my body began to change, betraying Janet. It was difficult living in a body that did not reflect me at my best self, and it became the central drama of my first 18 years.

During the eighth grade, I began incorporating cosmetics (Lipsmackers, Wet N Wild eyeliner, CoverGirl compacts) into my beauty regimen. I was teased, taunted and targeted for this gender variance, but my accomplishments and involvement in school soon overshadowed my non-conformity. By freshman year, I was dressing as my female self and was soon known as Janet through the halls of my high school in Kalihi, a tough part of Honolulu.

With the help of my family, my friends, my endocrinologist and my teachers at Farrington High School, I thrived, eventually earning my alma mater’s only full-ride academic scholarship to the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

After my freshman semester at UHM, I traveled across the globe to Bangkok, where at the hands of a Thai surgeon, I united my body and soul, becoming the physical embodiment of the woman of my dreams at age 18. I finally had the body that represented me at my best.

With the gender stuff behind me, I graduated with a bachelors degree and moved to New York, where I earned my masters in journalism at New York University. In 2006, I was elated to be hired by the website of one of my favorite magazines, where I put my encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, bad romantic comedies and must-see television to entertaining use.

But writing about famous people only allowed me to express a minutiae of my talents. My wakeup call to a higher purpose came in the fall of 2010. It was apparent that being different (whether you were gay or transgender, overweight or rail-thin, dark or albino) was a matter of life or death. I knew that writing my memoir Fish Food in silence was no longer an option. I had to speak up.

I decided to tell the story of my adolescent transition from Charles to Janet to Marie Claire, a women’s magazine with the motto “More Than a Pretty Face, in its June 2011 issue, as well as reach out to young people in my It Gets Better video, with the encouragement of my partner Aaron Tredwell, who blended my childhood photos and words into what I hope is the encouraging nugget of hope for kids growing up like I did.

Now, I hope to find a publisher for my memoir and to continue to inspire kids by sharing stories from my life and most of all living in my truth and leading with my authentic self. I hope by being open, I banish the shame attached to being transgender and encourage kids like me to live in their truth, follow their greatest dreams and create a new day for themselves.

Side Bar ~ Ms. Mock is intelligent, successful and drop-dead gorgeous.

Her revelation to the world has the power to influence, inspire, and motivate any person who is battling with self-identity. Her story has infused new life upon many who felt they were slowly dying inside.

I truly believe "one" person can touch and change people lives . . .  Ms. Mock JOB WELL DONE!

Ms. Mock Your Absolutely Stunning!