Expanded Background:
June was born June Valens, daughter of J. Peter Valens, a lobbyist for Bronton Gas and Electric, and his (third) wife Lucy Pavoni. The marriage was not of long duration; Valens soon filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Since he could afford the best lawyers and Lucy was to all intents and appearances a young trophy bride with few resources of her own, evidence of infidelity and abuse on his part was swept under the rug, while she received next to nothing in the settlement -- not even visitation rights.
June's childhood was, as she puts it, not the most fun thing ever. She had inherited her mother's golden good looks, which did nothing to endear her to her father. He saw custody of her as a matter of asserting his rights, but he had no interest in her as a person. His succession of girlfriends were sticky-sweet at first, until they perceived her father's dislike of her, then turned cruel in hope of scoring points with him. As his string of disastrous relationships piled up he grew more and more bitter. June's frequent admonitions to chill out were not well received.
June tried to compensate by being the life of the party at school, and at this she succeeded -- but she was annoyed by the way people constantly assumed her to be stupid and shallow. Boys flirted with her to her face and cracked jokes about her breast size behind her back; girls made biting remarks about ditzy blondes; and teachers ignored her raised hand, choosing to answer male students or brunettes with glasses instead. In high schools the boys she was interested in, the ones with good grades and gentlemanly manners, passed her over, while the ones who hit on her were interested in one thing only. Well, screw them. But, like, not literally, OK?
The most painful experience of all was her first attempt at physical intimacy with a boy she thought she could trust: he secretly recorded the encounter on his cell phone and then posted it on YouTube. She was mocked by her peers while the boy was admired for his exploit. People can be such jerks, right?
During her senior year, the school administration tried to discourage her from becoming official salutatorian for graduation, despite her class ranking, citing the earlier YouTube scandal. One teacher explained that no one would believe she had actually earned the position. And as acceptance letters from the best schools arrived -- schools that saw only her GPA and test scores, not her appearance -- her father flatly refused to pay for any of them. Like, what was wrong with him? Did he think she only going to college to get a MRS. degree? Nobody does that anymore!
Salvation came in the form of a letter from an organization she had never heard of: the Teléia Foundation, which offered full ride scholarships to students planning a career in law or politics in the hopes of creating more support for "family values". June was dubious, having found the young conservatives she met on campus to be deeply uncool, but the Foundation's representative assured her they were not affiliated with any political party or church. Maybe it was the censure in the representative's voice as she looked towards June's house, where her father stood on the porch with a beer and a sneer, or the knowing look in the older woman's eye; either way, June accepted the offer, graduated from Pomona College with a degree in Political Science, and went on to study law at Stanford. Awesome, huh?
Throughout her college years, she had regular visits from Iris Stephanidis, the representative of the Teléia Foundation, ostensibly to check on her progress. In reality, Iris talked much more than June did -- about the politicians who paid lip service to wives and mothers while denying them maternity leave; about the social conservatives who condemned single mothers for working while cutting their food stamps; about the system that forced poor women to become fugitives while allowing rich men to marry and divorce at a whim and cast off wives like last year's clothes.
June hardly argued with her -- though her time at college was a lot easier than her teen years had been. Joining a little-known sorority recommended by the Foundation gave her friends and allies her own age for the first time in her life, and she rose to become the chapter's hard working and respected president. But still, again and again, she found herself up against the prejudices of those who thought a pretty woman was incapable of seriousness or depth, and the base desires of men who saw her as some sort of prize to be claimed. The most hurtful part, though, was that many adult women shared their attitudes. Which was, like, totally unfair and kind of gross.
By the time she graduated, she was ready to turn that bright shining fierceness on the whole world. It definitely sucked for women, so obviously all that was just gonna have to change.
Then, she found out there was another World to reckon with...