This past weekend, I had the amazing experience of being profiled in a full-paged article in the weekend newspaper here in St. John's. The feature is called 20 Questions, which includes an article about a prominent member of society, as well as 20 personal questions, that will allow the reader to learn about the personal side of someone you may only know superficially from watching the news.
Journalist Tara Bradbury approached me about a month ago with the idea and I was all over it. We traded e-mails back and forth over the questions, and had a lengthy voice conversation to help her write the article. I wanted to use this opportunity to build upon my existing public profile so those who already know me for being a transperson, will get a chance to learn more about the various work I have done and experiences I have had.
Among things people got to learn about me include:
Why I chose the name Jennifer
What I was like as a youth
What is my favourite food, music, year
What are my hobbies
What bugs me
Who inspires me
My most prized possession
What I would do if Premier for a day
Overall, this gave me a chance to give readers an overview of my transition, my marathon running, my love of animals, my advocacy work for human rights. It also allowed people to see the human side of me, as I revealed one of my many current celebrity romantic crushes, discussed my aspirations of having a family - that includes biological children, and discusses how much I seem to appreciate the little things in life, such as a day at the beach or some time playing with my cats. It also profiled my infamous sarcastic sense of humour!
It also served as a chance to review some of my greatest business accomplishments, including my direction and production of a made-for-tv educational forum and a live arts and entertainment event. I also got to demonstrate my vision for the future of this province, should I be in a position of political power; and I announced my intention to seek election next year on the City Council.
I am really pleased that I am finally getting public recognition, not only for being trans, but for being an amazing community leader, who just so happens to be trans. Feedback from the article has been amazing. Occurences of people stopping me on the street to chat have increased.
Thanks again to @Tara_Bradbury and the Telegram newspaper for this amazing exposure!
Jenn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment