Janet Mock’s “StoryGiving” Campaign

Janet Mock, trans activist, writer, founder of #GirlsLikeUs, and one helluva feminist, has written a memoir about her coming of age as a young trans woman of color entitled Redefining Realness. Hailed as a “courageous” book by bell hooks and lauded as a “riveting, emotional, and crisply written testimony” by Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black), Mock’s memoir will arrive in stores on 4 February. In the meantime, Mock has announced the “Storygiving Campaign,” aimed at providing free copies of her memoir to trans* folk whose finances are limited and cannot purchase the book.

Thoughtfully addressing the systemic, especially economic, oppression faced by the trans* community, Mock understands the challenge of accessibility faced by the community to get a hold of and read stories by them and for them, explaining on her website, “[a]s Redefining Realness makes its way into the world, I’m aware that accessibility remains an issue. If low-income trans folk can’t afford the book, how will they have an opportunity to see themselves reflected in its pages?”

The ingenious “Storygiving Campaign” provides an opportunity for those of us—those of us with the financial means and/or those of us in the cisgender community who want to address our privilege in a substantive way—to facilitate coalition building through assisting in the dissemination of this undoubtedly significant personal narrative.

Visit her website to participate in this campaign.