The large majority of transgender celebrities are defined by the media as trans first, and celebrity second. Everything they do and achieve is sadly overshadowed by the mere nature of their gender and sexuality. Not so for Janet Mock. She transitioned long before anyone knew about her, and made a big name for herself before she came out in 2011 to surprised Marie Claire readers and the rest of the world.
She travelled to Thailand when she was 18, in the middle of her first year at college, to complete the process. Janet describes her early life as difficult. Recounting her early feelings at the age of five, she said that "It felt amazing to be in a dress. But suddenly my grandmother appeared, a look of horror on her face. I knew immediately that I had crossed some kind of line." She would cross that line again and again until it became irrelevant and she could become who she was inside.