Janet Mock is an American best-selling author, transgender rights activist, sought-after speaker and the founder of #GirlsLikeUs, a social media project that empowers trans women.
Mock was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1983. She grew up in Hawaii and Oakland, California. Mock knew at an early age that she wanted to become a writer, and would spend a lot of time sitting in the public library in Honolulu reading work by authors like Maya Angelou. She was the first person in her family to go to college and graduated with 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 began working for People.com and was a staff editor there for more than five years. She learnt how to craft small blurbs and communicate to readers with topics they actually wanted to read about without having to resort to sensationalism. She also learnt what works on various social media sites which became invaluable in her later work as a transgender rights activist.
In 2011, Mock came out publicly as a trans woman in an article in Marie Clare which signalled the beginning of her becoming one of the most influential trans women and millennial leaders in media. In 2012, Mock started #GirlsLikeUs, a Twitter hashtag to empower transgender women and create spaces for those young women to share their stories. She used social media as a way for her to not only raise the visibility of young trans women, but also to get people to understand or at least know someone in their life that’s trans. Mock interacts with the young women who contact her through Twitter, Facebook and comments on their blogs and YouTube videos. That same year, she gave the Lavender Commencement keynote speech honouring LGBT students at the University of Southern California. She also served as co-chair, nominee and presenter at the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards. Mock also appeared in a video video about her experiences as a transgender woman to the “It Gets Better” project, and written about transgender issues for the Huffington Post and xojane.
In 2014, Mock’s memoir, Redefining Realness was published. She is outspoken about the fact that it is essential that trans women have opportunities to share their stories with each other and document their lives. The book made the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction. Mock became a contributing editor at Marie Claire that year.
Also in 2014, Mock joined the campaign against a Phoenix law which allows police to arrest anyone suspected of “manifesting prostitution”. The law unjustly targets transgender women of colour. After the conviction of activist and trans woman of colour Monica Jones, Mock tweeted “Speak against the profiling of #TWOC [trans woman of colour], like Monica Jones. Tweet #StandWithMonica + follow @SWOPPhx [Sex Workers Outreach Project – Phoenix Chapter] now!” to show her support.
Mock has been honoured by The Ms. Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Feminist Press, GLSEN, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project for her work. She has been called one of “12 new faces of black leadership” by TIME and one of “the most influential people on the Internet”. In 2015, Fast Company named her one of 2015’s “most creative people in business.” She lived in New York City with her husband, photographer Aaron Tredwell. As well as continuing her activism for transgender rights, she is a sought-after speaker, a host for So Popular! – a weekly MSNBC digital series about culture and a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.