After experiencing homelessness as a teenager in New York City during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lovell went on to work for various organisations advocating for the rights of trans people and sex workers.
After studying filmmaking at Lincoln Center, she went on to co-direct the documentary film The Stroll (2023), based in part on her experiences as a sex worker.
Lovell primarily worked on 14th Street between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River, in an area that was informally known as the Stroll, and had within it a high number of black trans sex workers.
[1][2][5][6] Lovell worked on the Stroll between 1999 and 2005, citing a lack of other employment opportunities for queer and trans people at the time, and using her income to pay her rent while completing unpaid internships.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, FIERCE campaigned ultimately unsuccessfully against the gentrification of the Meatpacking District, which Lovell stated was forcing queer and trans people from the area.
[1] Lovell subsequently spent 10 years working at Sylvia Rivera's Place, an emergency shelter and support service for LGBTQIA people in New York City.
In 2013, Lovell supported the family of Islan Nettles, a black trans woman who had been beaten to death in Harlem; despite her killer having handed himself in to the police three days after the attack, it took over a year for him to be indicted, with him ultimately being charged with manslaughter.