I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of

the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time, taking time to be more fully present.

Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right

now.

Last year, I interviewed Janet Mock for...

I feel that way too, about her. I interviewed Janet Mock for Super Soul Sunday and you know,

it was so interesting because I learned so much. I mean, she taught me so much about the spectrum.

And then I went and told everybody else I knew, you know, there's a spectrum, not just for sexuality,

but for gender also. So, Janet told me at the time that she often thinks about Harriet Tubman

and what it must have taken for a person to actually go and get their own freedom and then to come

back and show people the way. Well, that's just what she's doing. Janet is here to show us the path

to authenticity and embracing the otherness, the otherness, Janet Mock.

Standing on this stage, on this stage is improbable considering the world that I come from.

I was born in a pink hospital on the top of a hill in Honolulu, Hawaii to a mother who was a teen

mother with two sisters who were teen mothers and a father addicted to crack cocaine.

I grew up affected by my family's homelessness and joblessness. We struggled for resources and

communities ravaged by poverty. And if that wasn't enough, I also had my own identity struggles.

I was welcomed into the world as my parents first born son. They named me after my dad.

They dressed me and football team onesies. They expressed my gender for me.

And from a young age, I struggled deeply and fought hard to be myself and reveal myself in a culture

that mandates that if you're born with certain body parts, you are not allowed to be who you truly

are if that expression doesn't align with what those around you deem normal.

...