February 13, 2018

Queen Laverne Cox was born in Mobile, Alabama (thank Heavens she got out of there) and was raised by her single mom and grandmother within the AME Zion Church (ME TOO GIRL! The AMEZ part.) Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 5 years, you know Laverne rose to fame through her role as Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black.

She is a graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama where she studied creative before switching to dance. Following ASFA (I don’t actually know if that’t the abbreviation for it, I just assumed. If not, I apologize for this misinformation.), Laverne went to Indiana University Bloomington for two years before transferring to Marymount Manhattan College, where she switched from dance to acting.

At just eleven years old, Lavern attempted to end her life after years of being bullied and realizing she had feelings about male classmates. (Kids are such trash.)

Before stealing all of our hearts on “Orange is the New Black,” Laverne was a contestant on “I Want to Work for Diddy,” season one. After the show, VH1 was basically like, “You know what? Shorty is intriguing, funny, and supah cute. We should see if she has any dope show ideas.” So they did, and Laverne because the first Black transperson to produce AND star in her own TV show with “TRANSform Me,” a makeover show. Both “TRANSform Me” and “I Want to Work for Diddy” were nominated for GLAAD media awards for outstanding reality shows. Diddy’s show won and Laverne accepted the award.

In 2013, she started on OITNB, and it was incredible! A TRANS WOMAN ACTUALLY PLAYING THE ROLE OF A TRANS WOMAN! REAL REPRESENTATION!! People. Loved. It.

Since becoming a shining light for many near and far, Laverne Cox has continued advocating for the trans community, as well as the LGBTQ community. She’s been outchea hobnobbing with Beyonce (and other celebs, but Beyonce!), appearing in other shows, including Law & Order: SVU, The Mindy Project, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, and killing on Lip Sync Battle (against Samira Wiley, another amazing icon! OITNB did her character so dirty and I don’t care if that seems like a spoiler to you because you should have seen it by now, to be honest.) She’s appeared on magazines like Essence and C☆NDY. She’s won awards.

Basically, Laverne is just out here being Laverne—snatching edges and being a trailblazing cultural phenomena. Catch ya girl on Insta looking fierce, serving looks, dancing, and getting her life as she gives us ours.

Oh! She also just became Cosmopolitan Magazine's first openly transgender person to appear on any of their covers! She's on Cosmopolitan South Africa (YAS! MAKE THOSE STRIDES!)