Next person biography:
Janae Marie Kroczaleski, a world champion and record-breaking powerlifter, champion bodybuilder, published author, U.S. Marine, cancer survivor, licensed pharmacist, and proud parent of three teenage sons, is a transgender woman with a remarkable and unique life story. Born Matthew Kroczaleski in 1972, Janae grew up in rural Michigan, where she started lifting weights at the age of nine and by high school was competing in powerlifting and other sports.
Janae knew from an early age that she identified as female, but continued to live publicly as "Matt" for over four decades. After graduating from high school, she served in the United States Marine Corps for four years, where she was selected for Presidential security duty during the Clinton administration. Following her military service, Janae earned her Bachelor of Science in pharmacy and began a career as a licensed pharmacist.
In her personal life, Janae married, had three sons, and continued to advance in her weight training, becoming one of the most successful and popular athletes in powerlifting. She was renowned for her training intensity, mental toughness, and ability to overcome serious injuries. Janae set the 220 lb. class world record with a combined squat/bench/deadlift of 2,551 pounds in 2009 and won the 2006 Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic WPO World Middleweight Championship.
After powerlifting, Janae achieved success as a bodybuilder, winning the NPC Michigan State Championships in 2010 and competing at the NPC National Championships in 2013. Despite her success, Janae's immediate family knew she was transgender throughout this time, but she had not made it public.
Janae's success brought her numerous endorsement deals, magazine covers and articles, and fame throughout the world of weightlifting and bodybuilding. However, in the Spring of 2015, she was publicly outed as a transgender woman. Despite losing her endorsement deals, thousands of fans supported Janae's embracing her non-binary, gender fluid identity as a physically powerful transgender woman.
Since coming out as transgender, Janae has appeared on Inside Edition, TMZ, numerous radio shows and podcasts, and now speaks at colleges, universities, companies, and organizations across the country about her experiences navigating through life as a gender fluid, non-binary transgender woman. She has a large, devoted following on social media and has been featured in numerous profiles in major print and online publications, including the Huffington Post and Muscle & Fitness Magazine.
Janae is the subject of an award-winning documentary feature film, "Transformer," which follows her through the first two years of her public transition from male to female. The film won both the Jury Award and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Austin Film Festival in 2017 and was an official entry at the 2018 HotDocs Film Festival, where it sold out three screenings. The film will be released worldwide in 2018.
