Redefining Realness

Redefining Realness My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More

Janet Mock2014
In this New York Times bestseller—the first transgender memoir written by an African American—an extraordinary young woman recounts her coming-of-age. “Undercurrents of strong emotion swirl throughout this well-written book…An enlightening, much-needed perspective on transgender identity” (Kirkus Reviews). In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Those twenty-three hundred words were life-altering for the People.com editor, turning her into an influential and outspoken public figure and a desperately needed voice for an often voiceless community. In these pages, she offers a bold and inspiring perspective on being young, multicultural, economically challenged, and transgender in America. This “heart-rending autobiography of love, longing, and fulfillment” (bell hooks, author of All About Love) follows Mock's quest for identity, from an early, unwavering conviction about her gender to a turbulent adolescence in Honolulu that saw her transitioning during the tender years of high school, self-medicating with hormones at fifteen, and flying across the world alone for sex reassignment surgery at just eighteen. Despite the hurdles, Mock received a scholarship to college and moved to New York City, where she earned a master's degree and enjoyed the success of an enviable career. Now, with unflinching honesty, Mock uses her own experience to impart vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of trans youth and brave girls like herself. A profound statement of affirmation from a courageous woman, Redefining Realness provides a whole new outlook on what it means to be a woman today, and shows as never before how to be authentic, unapologetic, and wholly yourself.
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Reviews

Photo of Fraser Simons
Fraser Simons@frasersimons
4 stars
Jun 9, 2022

More honest and open than I expected. Except for what I read as a pretty antiquated, puritanical view of sex work. No one would do it unless they had to, etc. Otherwise, an intersectional look at a number of really difficult topics. Childhood sexual assault, transitioning as a black woman in a family that was not very accepting, nor a school with tools or willingness to protect her. Basically having to do everything herself without any support structure while dealing with quite a few unique challenges with her identity. It’s edifying and opinionated, which I like in my memoirs. Good narration by the author.

Photo of Izzy
Izzy@izzystardust
5 stars
Aug 4, 2022

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