Janet Mock Biography
Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, actress, director, producer, and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir Redefining Realness, became a New York Times bestseller. She is a contributing editor for Marie Claire and a former staff editor of People magazine’s website.
How old is Janet Mock? – Age
The American writer is 40 years old as of 10th March 2023. She was born in 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States.
Janet Mock Education
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.
Who are Janet Mock’s Parents? – Family – Mother
The American writer was born as the second child in the family. Her father was known as, Charlie Mock III, is African- American, and her mother, Elizabeth, is of half Portuguese descent, part Asian descent and part Native Hawaiian descent.
Janet Mock Siblings
The American writer is not the only child in their family. She is the second child in her family. She has an elder brother known as Chad Mock. They both were brought up and spent their childhood and youth in their native home, Hawaii, and some parts of it in California, Oakland, and Dallas.
Who is Janet Mock Married to? – Spouse-Kids
She was the wife of photographer Aaron Tredwell. The actress married the photographer on 5th November 2015. The duo stayed together for around four years before separating. They divorced in February 2019. The couple didn’t have any children together. The actress confirmed the divorce news by stating that; Aaron and I have decided to part. I’m grateful for the years we shared and will look back on them fondly. I appreciate your good wishes as we continue onward separately with enduring reverence.
Janet Mock Career
The American writer started working at People magazine, where she was a staff editor for more than five years. Her career in journalism shifted from editor to media advocate when she came out publicly as a trans woman in a 2011 Marie Claire article, written by Kierna Mayo in Mock’s voice. The actress took issue with how the magazine represented her by stating that she was born and raised as a boy; she says she was always a girl. In 2012, Atria Books, a division of Simon & schuster, signed Mock to her first book deal for a memoir about her teenage years, which was released as Redefining Realness: My path to womanhood, Identity, Love & so much more in February 2014.
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 for hardcover nonfiction, and contains her personal memories often alongside statistics or social theory. The writer writes her book is about her personal experience as a trans woman of color. Shortly after signing her book deal, she left her position as an editor at people.com where she had worked for more than five years. She went on to host Takepart Live and her own culture show, So POPular!, on Shift. The actress has stated, in a Q&A with Tribune Business News, that her heroes and influences have been women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. While taping So POPular!, she continued to work with MSNBC as a guest host for the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, host of the Global Citizen Festival, and covered the White House Correspondence Dinner’s red carpet for Shift.
In April 2014, GLSEN presented Mock with the Inspiration Award at the GLSEN Respect Awards and in October, the Feminist press honored her activism at the Women & Power Gala. In April 2015, Oprah Winfrey invited Mock to be a guest on Super Soul Sunday for a segment titled, “Becoming Your Most Authentic Self” where she discussed “proudly and unapologetically” claiming her identities. In September 2015, she was invited back to join Winfrey’s Super Soul Sessions where Mock discussed, “Embracing The Otherness.” In 2016, Mock was named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. In 2016, she wrote the foreword for On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, a book of photos and stories by famed photographer, Mark Seliger. In 2017, Surpassing certainty, Mock’s second memoir, was published. The book’s title is an allusion to Audre Lorde, who wrote, “And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”
The television show pose premiered on June 3, 2018, on FX. Mock is a writer, director, and producer on the show, and is the first trans woman of color hired as a writer for a TV series in history. It follows the lives of five trans women in the New York ballroom scene in 1987. Pose “looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene, and the ball culture world.” The series has been congratulated for casting actual trans women in trans roles and for accurately depicting a unique queer subculture. In 2018 the writer directed the episode of Pose titled “Love Is the Message”, thus making her the first transgender woman of color to write and direct any television episode. In 2019, she signed a three-year deal with Netflix giving them exclusive rights to her TV series and a first-look option on feature film projects; this made her the first openly transgender woman of color to secure a deal with a major content company.
Janet Mock’s Net worth
Janet has an estimated net worth of $3 million as of 2022.