Zinnia Jones

Lauren McNamara is an atheist YouTuber known on the internet by her online handle Zinnia Jones or ZJ for short. She has posted numerous videos critical of religion, especially in regards to its attitudes towards LGBT people. Zinnia is openly transgender, and currently speaks on trans issues on her channel. She also writes for Freethought Blogs.

Early Life
Zinnia was born as a male by the name of Zachary Antolak in Chicago. Her parents divorced at an early age and her mother soon remarried to another man. While Zinnia has always retained a good relationship with her biological father, the same cannot be said of her stepfather. Her stepfather was often abusive to both Zinnia and her mother. While spoiled his biological daughter to no end, he would berate his stepson for not having an active interest in masculine activities like sports.

While she was raised Catholic, Zinnia became an atheist at the age of 8 when her stepfather was in a drunken rage and she prayed to God to make it stop, only for nothing to happen. She formally defected from the Church in 2010.

Zinnia became aware of her sexuality as a gay male at an early age. She remembers when a female friend of hers allowed the then identifying male Zinnia to touch her breast. Zinnia didn't elicit a response expected of a young male and the friendship soon faded. When Zinnia came out to her family, they took it fine.

While Zinnia was ahead of her class in elementary school, she was soon taken to high school before hitting her teen years and she struggled to fit in. She then dropped out of school altogether.

YouTube Career and Identity
Zinnia started YouTube in 2008 on her channel originally named zjemptv where she mainly made videos arguing against religion, theism and homophobia. She was always open about her sexuality and quickly developed a snarky and sometimes aggressive demeanor. Zinnia's physical appearance was often made a point of mockery and blunt curiosity in the comments section where the status of her gender was often questioned. In response to this and other judgmental people, Zinnia let her hair grow out over the years started applying feminine accessories such lipstick, jewelry and feathery scarves.

For many years, Zinnia took on the moniker the Queen of Atheism, an obvious double entendre. She currently calls herself a Secular Trans Feminist.

After years identifying as a gay male, Zinnia finally came to the conclusion that she was actually a transwoman in 2011 and started a romantic relationship with her close friend and lesbian Heather McNamara, becoming an adoptive mother towards Heather's two children. Zinnia is currently in a polyamorous relationship with Heather and another transwoman named Penny.

Gender Analysis
Starting in 2014, Zinnia shifted the focus of her channel onto primarily trans issues (herself currently taking HRT for years now). She started own patron-funded video series by the name of Gender Analysis where she takes an in-depth look at issues facing trans people and common oppositions to them, from someone who's been there.