The book Révéler mes visages (Revealing My Faces) by Janis Sahraoui and Tal Madesta is a luminous and painful voyage into the heart of identity, art, and self-creation. It tells the story of a person who once called herself Sliimy, a bright pop phenomenon from Saint-Étienne whose sugary melodies and flamboyant aesthetic hid the shadows of a childhood scarred by violence and grief. This work is far more than a celebrity memoir; it is an act of reclamation, the slow and tender unveiling of a truth that had been silenced behind glitter and smiles. Through the writing of journalist and author Tal Madesta, Janis Sahraoui revisits her journey with remarkable honesty, transforming her life into a reflection on gender, survival, and the masks that both protect and imprison us.
The story begins in the quiet pain of a child misunderstood. Assigned male at birth, Janis grew up feeling like a stranger in her own body, constantly policed for her gentleness and sensitivity. Only her mother, Fatima, saw and accepted her for who she truly was, nurturing the creativity that would one day become her salvation. When Fatima passed away, violence entered the household, and the young Janis, then known as a little boy, found herself the target of cruelty both at home and at school. The taunts of being called “a failed girl” echoed through her days, shaping a feeling of exile from herself. Music became a refuge. Behind the glow of a computer screen and the anonymity of Myspace, she began composing songs under the name Sliimy, inventing a character of radiant color and charm that could exist freely in the digital world even as her real life was constrained by fear and shame.
