Jonathan Van Ness

This refers to broadcast and newspaper conglomerate Quincy Media and the company's local flagship newspaper, the Herald-Whig; Van Ness's mother is the vice president of Quincy Media, and he is a descendant of the Oakley family, which has controlled the company since the 1890s.

When Van Ness was younger, he was sexually abused by an older boy at church, which laid the foundation for self-destructive behaviors.

In his early teens, he used online chat to socialize with, and sometimes meet, older men for sex.

Openly gay throughout his life, Van Ness experienced bullying for his femininity and natural flamboyance.

He "endured years of judgment, ridicule, and trauma."

Of the time, Van Ness said, "Growing up I definitely put on every nail polish, every heel, every scarf – I definitely had my mom's knockoff Hermès scarves in my hair and around my waist – those were my skirts, and I loved it. ... But when I was really young, I had really femme-shamey, gender-shamey [reactions] when I would dress like that. When I would play with those things, I knew it needed to be ... behind closed doors."

Although always comfortable in his gender expression and sexuality, he says it took time to navigate other people's reactions.

In response to the bullying, he used humor as a coping mechanism and relied on a small group of close friends for support.

Jonathan McDonald Van Ness (born March 28, 1987), also commonly referred to by his initials J.V.N, is an American hairstylist, podcast host and television personality.

He is best known as the grooming expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, for his work on the web series parody Gay of Thrones, and for hosting the Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness podcast.

He is also known for comedy tours, the 2023 tour entitled Fun & Slutty with Jonathan Van Ness.

Jonathan Van Ness was born March 28, 1987, to parents Mary Winters and Jonathan Lyle Van Ness, and raised in Quincy, Illinois.

He said he comes "from a family of journalists", being the sixth generation of his family-owned newspaper.

After graduating, he worked in Arizona for five years, before moving to Los Angeles in 2009.

Van Ness's 9th Great-Grandmother, Patience Bacon, was one of the founders of Northampton, Massachusetts, and is noted for being the first recorded female surgeon in America.

In Los Angeles, Van Ness found a job as a personal assistant at Sally Hershberger Salon.

Years later, in the late 2010s, he realized he was gender non-conforming and started identifying as non-binary.

Van Ness was the first male cheerleader at Quincy Senior High School and continued cheerleading in college at the University of Arizona, where he majored in political science.

One month in his initial semester at college, he used up his monthly allowance on cocaine and, too embarrassed to ask his parents for funds, turned to sex work.

His addictions to sex and drugs increased to also include methamphetamine.

His grades fell, and he lost his cheerleading scholarship; he dropped out after one semester to pursue hairstyling.

Van Ness trained at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis.

One day in 2012, at age 25, he fainted in the salon while doing highlights for a client's hair.

Later at a clinic, he found out he was HIV-positive.

He used the revelation to get clean from drug use and publicly shared his story, saying, "I want people to realize you're never too broken to be fixed."

He worked at MoJoHair and Stile Salon, both in Los Angeles, which he co-founded with Monique Northrop of Arte Salon in New York City.

In 2013, while dressing the hair of friend Erin Gibson, who worked for the comedy syndicate Funny or Die, Gibson asked Van Ness to perform his recap of a Game of Thrones episode for Funny or Die, which became the Gay of Thrones web series.

Since 2015, Van Ness has hosted the weekly podcast Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.

His podcast took off upon the airing of the first Queer Eye episode.

In 2018, Van Ness was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series for the series.

Beginning in 2018, Van Ness has starred as the grooming expert on the Netflix revival of Queer Eye.

Van Ness's memoir, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, was published in October 2019.

His memoir discusses his past and how it helped sculpt his future.

In 2020, Van Ness released a picture book titled Peanut Goes for the Gold, which tells the story of a nonbinary guinea pig named Peanut and their adventures as a rhythmic gymnastics prodigy.

Peanut is inspired by Van Ness's own childhood pet.

In 2022 Van Ness released a collection of essays in a book titled Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life.

Van Ness identifies as non-binary.

Although he has stated a preference for using the pronouns "he/him", he has also used "she/her" and "they/them" interchangeably.

He explained his gender in an interview with Out, saying, "[S]ome days I feel like a man, but then other days I feel like a woman. I don't really — I think my energies are really all over the place. Any opportunity I have to break down stereotypes of the binary, I am down for it, I'm here for it."

Van Ness lives and works in Austin, Texas and New York City.