"Vanessa was born in independent Samoa, where her parents were Catholic missionaries. Her father, an American Samoan, was a naturalized United States citizen while her mother was a citizen of independent Samoa. Through the one-parent naturalization law of the U.S. Immigration Office, Vanessa became a United States national, the immigration status of all the citizens of the American Samoa Territory of the United States.
Her memoirs are a recollection of her life as she struggled through her sexual identity, becoming the first fa'afafine to reach a deputy position in a government department (ASCC) dressed as a woman. It also depicts her involvement in the establishment of the first fa'afafine organization on the island and its beauty pageant fund-raising to help the community, specifically the old people's home at Fatu-o-Aiga and the LBJ Medical Center. She also promulgates her reactions to the writings on fa'afafines by different authors in this short autobiography."
