We are grateful to The Honey Pot Co. for sponsoring this episode and standing by our mission to inspire people to accept the skin they’re in and step into their whole, most powerful selves. Check them out here https://thehoneypot.co/​ In honor of Black History Month, we're ecstatic to bring you the extended interviews from our ‘What’s Underneath: Black Voices,’ video series beginning with @janayathefuture and continuing with new stories every Friday. Many of us hit rock bottom at some point in our lives, causing us to look within for our true power. For Janaya Khan, they were 16 years old, feeling inconsequential and sleeping on a park bench to escape the violence of group homes. Systemic oppression, which contributed to their mother’s schizophrenia and her lack of adequate care, as well as the weight of a Transphobic society, left them marginalized and feeling erased. This isolation brought Janaya face-to-face with the meaning of their life. It was within that despair that the spark of a life-defining thought came in - that Janaya was actually not alone and that there must be thousands of others just like them. Thus began Janaya’s journey: working to ascend to their most unshadowed self who is now leading and galvanizing a community, often of “the forgotten and despised,” through activism. Today, Janaya’s work as an organizer and orator for Black Lives Matter has exploded into them being one of the future’s brightest, unifying light of our time. “You don’t have to make people see the light,” Janaya says, “...you just have to be the light.” If you were inspired by Janaya’s story and would like to hear more, please take a moment to subscribe to our podcast and share this video with any friends or family who could benefit from understanding that they are enough as they are. New Episodes drop Fridays! To join the movement, head over to https://bit.ly/3sa8Mxw​