Josie Totah, who made a name for herself in the Disney Channel series Jessie, has since come out as transgender and has made a name for herself.
Totah began acting in 2012, and for two years she played the character Stuart Wooten in Jessie.
She has even appeared in Sofia The First, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, Glee, Moxie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Big Mouth, Human Resources, iCarly, and a 2020 reboot of Saved By The Bell as Lexi, as well as the 2018 comedy Champions.
In an article she wrote for TIME Magazine, Totah said: “Acting has always been my passion. I’m grateful for the roles I’ve been given on shows like Champions, and I know it’s a privileged position for me to do what I love.
How did Josie Totah come to terms with her transness?
Totah said that she wanted to be a girl long before she realized what being “transgender” meant.
In TIME, she wrote: “When I was five, long before I understood what the word gender meant, I would always tell my mother that I wished I were a girl. Since I could speak in complete sentences, I was like, ‘Give me a dress!’ I always knew on some level that I was female.
But, in the end, it was a docuseries on TLC that truly “crystallized” how she felt about her identity. I Am Jazz, the reality show of 14 years old, was the subject of the television series in question.
Totah began her acting career playing male roles, but in August 2018 she publicly revealed that she was a transgender woman through her writing in TIME.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t be accepted, that I would be ostracized, that the fans who knew me from the time when I acted in a Disney show would be confused. However, I’ve come to the realization over the past few years that hiding my true self is not healthy. I know now, more than ever, that I’m finally ready to take this step toward becoming myself. I’m ready to be free,” Totah wrote.
Before she came out as transgender, some people assumed Totah was gay.
Totah claimed in her writing that many people thought she was a queer boy rather than a transgender woman.
This was in part due to her wanting to “hang out with the girls, not play soccer with the boys,” and when she first started acting, she gravitated toward the same role once more.
“I almost felt like I owed being that gay boy to everyone. But that has never been the way I think of myself,” Totah said.
Totah felt like it put her in a box because she made people think she was gay rather than outright stating that she was transgender, as evidenced by the fact that her character in Champions is also queer.
She also feared being rejected by fans who knew her before transitioning, or that “people would look at [her] differently.”
“But when my friends and family call me Josie, it feels like I’m being seen. It’s something everyone wants, to feel understood,” Totah wrote.
Totah has spoken out against the harassment and bullying that many LGBTQ+ children continue to face.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Totah said: “I think we need to stand up for each other.”
“If you see people being hurt, if you see people being bullied, and if you see someone who’s not in a safe space, you need to definitely say something.”
Totah spoke about this during the Human Rights Campaign’s ‘Time to THRIVE’ conference in 2019 as well. She said that “the fight for equality and civil rights continues,” but that there are also people “waiting to love you and support you” as well.
“We are lovable. We deserve to be loved and to give it back,” she said.
