Janet Mock Quotes

When I was growing up, I didn't know of anybody who was trans. There was always, like, this shame, anxiety thing around all of that, even if I wasn't actively expressing it.

Growing up, my experience with transsexualism was nothing but shame. It was something very hidden, and dealt with very privately.

As a kid, I was always mistaken for a girl. Before you reach that age where your sexuality starts to display itself, kids can look very androgynous, and I guess I leaned more toward the feminine. All those things were very hard, growing up, because you're trying to create an identity, and you're feeling shameful about the one that you're making.

Everyone picked on me in school because I was in foster care.

Society doesn't tell you that you can be trans.

I felt like I was going to hell just for putting on women's clothes.

I can remember back to being 5 and looking in the mirror, feeling like a girl and wanting that. But growing up in Rochester, there were limited resources. I'd never met a trans person before.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a boy. I really had gender issues. I really thought I was supposed to be a boy. I used to sneak into my dad's room and put on a suit, drink a cocktail, and pretend to smoke a cigarette.

But puberty was... well, before puberty, at school, I didn't tell kids I was a transvestite 'cause I thought they might kill me with sticks, you know?

When those types of situations[like abuse] begin to occur in your life - I had bought in from a very early age that fundamentally something must be wrong with me.

There's tremendous shame with being bullied. I think there's a level at which you think that there's a reason that you're being singled out, that you're being chosen.

As a little kid, I was convinced that I was a guy.

For all intents and purposes, I'm a woman.

I suffered from eating disorders when I was just a kid. I did not like me or the way I looked. But back then, you could not tell anyone.

So many people suffer from abuse, and suffer alone.

So many women have experienced horrific forms of male violence throughout their lives, and why isn't there a song about how you get depressed because of it?

Bullies generally were bullied and are hurting inside much more than you could ever imagine.

Victims always feel alone and helpless.

I thought, transgender people are much worse off than I am. That's why they're willing to risk everything to be who they are. But the older I got, the harder it got to stay in my body.

I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself.

I'm pretty sure I'm a doppelganger for Alan Alda. I'm a trannie; I'm a man.

I was teased horribly as a child and beaten up a lot.

I got picked on a lot as a kid.

It's actually one of the hardest things for trans people, is to go to the bathroom.

I was quiet a lot when I was picked on as a kid because I didn't have anything to say back.