Janet Mock, Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty

Janet Mock is truly a wonderful writer and this is never more apparent than when she is telling her own story; in Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty.

I read both of these books in August 2017 after Trump announced his intention to ban trans people from the U.S military, I was outraged and incensed at such a direct attack on the trans community. But it also made me realise how little I knew about the experiences of trans people and so reading Janet’s books in 2017 was a reactionary decision for me, and I wish I had read them sooner.

Reading Surpassing Certainty and Redefining Realness gave me a better understanding of some of the experiences that trans people face growing up and transitioning but I still have a huge amount more to learn so I will continue to read, listen, and be an ally to trans people. Janet’s work is fantastic in raising awareness for trans issues and rights through telling her story and experience.

Janet’s childhood is not an easy one, both of Janet’s parents are clearly loving but her father struggles with drug addiction and so Janet and her brother go to live with their mother in Hawaii where, in her teenage years, Janet turns to sex work so that she can save up for her bottom surgery. One of my favourite moments in these two books came when Janet is at school and she is befriended by Wendi, the specialness of their girlhood friendship is something that I felt strongly. My early school years were spent as half of a completely inseparable pair and I have never forgotten the friendship that, at such a young age, encouraged me to be completely and utterly myself. And after College when Janet moves to New York, I willed her on from job interview to job interview and when she is offered a job at People.com I felt some of that same sense of elation that I felt I was offered my first big job in London.

All of this to say, read these books! Because it is important to listen to and learn from trans people’s experiences but also because Janet is a fantastic writer and these are biographies that everyone can relate to, a story of personal struggle and triumph. And really great clothes.