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

by Janet Mock

Welcomed into the world as her parents' firstborn son, Mock set out early on to be her own person-no simple feat for a young person like herself. She struggled as the smart, determined child in a deeply loving, yet ill-equipped family that lacked money, education, and resources. Mock had to navigate her way through her teen years without parental guidance but luckily with a few close friends and mentors she overcame extremely daunting hurdles.

This powerful memoir follows Mock's quest for identity, from her early gender conviction to a turbulent adolescence in Honolulu that found her transitioning through the halls of her school, self-medicating with hormones at fifteen, and flying across the world for sex reassignment surgery at just eighteen. Ever resilient, Mock emerged with a scholarship to college and moved to New York City, where she earned her master's degree, basked in the success of an enviable career, and told no one about her past.

It wasn't until Mock fell for a man who called her the woman of his dreams that she felt ready to finally tell her story, becoming a fierce advocate for girls like herself. A profound statement of affirmation from a courageous woman, Redefining Realnessshows as never before what it means to be a woman today and how to be yourself when you don't fit the mould created for you.

• ISBN10: 1476709122
• ISBN13: 9781476709123
• Publish Date: 20 March 2014 (first published 4 February 2014)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 23 January 2016
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[wcs53]

This is a very moving memoir by Janet Mock, a trans woman of colour. She pulls no punches and shares both the highs and lows of her journey, as well as everything else in between. Her journey begins in Hawaii and ends up in New York, with stops in Dallas and Thailand along the way. But, as she reminds her readers, the journey still continues. There is a lot of bravery in being able to share ones story in the way that Mock does and she opens herself up in a way that many wouldn't, leaving herself quite vulnerable at times. For anyone unfamiliar with what it means to be a trans woman, then this would probably be a good place to start. It certainly helped answer a number of questions that I had.