Jessie Anderson is an entrepreneur and transgender activist who has resided in Vancouver, BC since 1995. After coming out as trans to his peers and family at age 16, Jessie quickly became involved in activism within his local community. Throughout the first few years of his transition, Jessie would co-organize two youth-led LGBTQ events at the Cultch (2008), write and present workshops on trans inclusion to volunteer groups at Vancouver Coastal Health (2010), and serve Davie Village as one of the full-time familiar faces behind the counter at Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium (2011-2015). 

Following the death of Little Sister’s co-owner Jim Deva in 2014, Jessie decided to take the knowledge he had gained from his community elders and channel it into a new, updated project: Big Bro’s Barbershop, a beauty and resource centre with a primary focus on trans wellness. With a brick-and-mortar location, Jessie could offer business hours as his community’s “Big Bro,” and provide one-on-one peer support and community networking while earning income via haircuts and the sales of gender-affirming products.

Through his Nanaimo Street shop location, Jessie currently serves transgender clients across lower BC from as far as Kamloops, and is a commonly exchanged resource among families of local trans youth. Having never strayed too far from the home he grew up in, Jessie now lives in an East Van co-op.

On September 1, 2015, Jessie opened Big Bro’s Barbershop for business on a budget of roughly nine thousand dollars, all crowdfunded from community members. In exchange, he had promised a brick-and-mortar space dedicated to the wellness of the trans community, created by a member of the trans community. Big Bro’s Barbershop would be a place where trans people could receive hair services without hassle, purchase gender-affirming products that are rarely available on store shelves, and have access to resources that are often difficult to find or afford.

For the first eight months that the business was open, Big Bro’s was located in a 300ft² windowless art studio in an industrial Franklin Street warehouse. Clients would ring a doorbell on a discreet sign hung on the front gate, and Jessie would run downstairs to escort his guests up to the shop. However, this original location was surprisingly well-received – queer folks in Vancouver were hardly strangers to community events and resources being hosted in odd affordable corners of Canada’s most expensive city.

Rapid-fire press coverage declaring Big Bro’s Barbershop the first business of its kind generated enough hype for Jessie to win Best Emerging Entrepreneur at the 2016 Small Business BC Awards, as one of only ten SBBC Awards winners selected from 535 province-wide nominations. This momentum carried Big Bro’s into its current location, an 800ft² storefront on Nanaimo Street, shared with independent queer hairdresser Zed Payne.

Since first opening its doors, Big Bro’s Barbershop has hosted a number of projects, fundraisers, and independent contractors, including:

• several trans service providers, including two tattoo artists, two makeup artists, a body piercer, and a tailor-slash-bootblack
• a monthly-rotated gallery of work from local visual artists
• fundraising sales for by-trans-for-trans projects, including locally-produced sitcom The Switch
• financial contributions to the Trans March, Black Lives Matter, the Compassion Club, local schools and events, and more
• community consultations with Vancouver-based medical providers and non-profits
• a free, recurring clothing swap for community members
• barrier-free sliding scale rates for all services
• free access to harm reduction supplies (safer sex supplies, menstrual pads, hormone injection supplies, safer drug use supplies)

Big Bro’s Barbershop continues to serve its community as one of the few physical spaces dedicated to enhancing the lives of Vancouver’s trans community beyond the context of medical transition.

Big Bro’s online: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | BigBrosBarbershop.com