Jazz Jennings (born: October 6, 2000)[1] is a transgender YouTube vlogger and trans activist. Her videos usually cover aspects of male-to-female trans life, including hormones, surgery and life as a woman. Jennings was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age 5, and started transitioning shortly after her diagnosis, making her one of the youngest publicly documented transgender individuals.[2]
Early life[]
Jennings (a pseudonym) was born into a Jewish family in South Florida, and was assigned male at birth. Her parents were Greg and Jeanette. She has an older brother and two older sisters. When she was a child, she stayed at Camp Aranu'tiq, a camp for transgender children. She studied at Broward Virtual Education High, and was accepted at Harvard University (though she delayed her entry by a year).
Career[]
When Jennings was six years old, she appeared on television with her family as part of a discussion on the challenges of growing up transgender. A year later, Jennings and her parents founded TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to assist transgender youth.
In 2011, a documentary entitled I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition was premiered. Jennings founded Purple Rainbow Tails, a company in which she fashions rubber mermaid tails to raise money for transgender children, in 2013. In 2014, she was named one of the "top 25 most influential teens of 2014" by Time Magazine. In 2016, Jennings published a memoir, Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen.
Jennings is an Internet celebrity and has appeared at events as a public speaker. She is also the star of reality TV show I Am Jazz, which is broadcast on TLC and goes through her transition in more detail than she has done on her channel.
Personal life[]
Despite being romantically attracted to boys, Jennings has stated that she is pansexual and "loves people for who they are". She has publicly discussed her wish of becoming a mother in the future. In 2018, she revealed that she had gender confirmation surgery and had suffered complications which required a follow-up appointment.