Lili Elbe was a transgender Danish painter who was among the first-ever documented recipients of gender confirmation surgery. Elbe was born in 1882 in the town of Vejle, Denmark. Her artistic talent was obvious as a young child, and as a teenager she travelled to Copenhagen to study art at the Royal Danish Academy of …
Audre Lorde described herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She was a pioneer of intersectional feminism and her work focused on confronting and addressing the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in 1934 in New York City to West Indian parents. She grew up hearing her mother’s stories about the West …
Katherine Murray “Kate” Millett is an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She is an acknowledged leader of the modern women’s movement. Millett was born in 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to James Albert and Helen Feely Millett. The family’s background was Irish Catholic, and Kate attended several parochial schools. Her father was an …
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, blogger, and commentator. She is a 2015 winner of PEN USA’s Freedom to Write award for her demonstration of exceptional courage in the defence of free expression. Gay was born in Nebraska to Haitian parents. Her family moved several times during her childhood and as Gay was …
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 …
Laura Jane Grace is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia in 1980. Her family moved frequently between military bases and lived briefly in Fort Hood, Texas; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Germany; and at a NATO post …
Laverne Cox is an American emmy-nominated actress and the first trans woman of colour to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show. She is an advocate for the transgender community and was honored by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work. Cox was born in Mobile, Alabama and raised …
Barbara Brenner was a renowned American breast cancer activist and leader of the Breast Cancer Action organisation. Brenner’s activism started at a young age when her mother took her to a Civil Rights march when she was 10 where she heard Martin Luther King, Jr speak. While at Smith College she was active in the …
Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher and writer. She laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. De Beauvoir was born into a family that had lost most of their fortune shortly after World War 1. She attended a prestigious convent school and was religious to the point that she intended to become …
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter and later a feminist icon. She is best known for her self-portraits. Kahlo was three when the Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and witnessed violent armed struggles in the streets of Mexico City and frequent gunfire. Her mother would occasionally feed the revolutionaries. Kahlo contracted polio when she was …