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Jazz JenningsAmerican YouTuber, TV presenter and LGBT rights activist
Date of Birth: 06.10.2000
Country:  USA |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Jennings was born in Florida to Jewish parents Greg and Jeanette. She has an older sister, Ari, and older twin brothers, Sander and Griffin. Regarding her last name, Jeanette explained, "Jennings is our pseudonym to make our lives a little easier. We try to keep our legal name very private. Our real last name is a big fat Jewish name."
Jennings was assigned male at birth and at the age of four was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, making her one of the youngest publicly documented individuals to identify as transgender. As soon as she could talk, Jennings made it clear that she was a girl, and while her family publicly presented her in gender-neutral clothing, she wanted to be presented in female clothing.
As a child, Jennings attended Camp Aranu'tiq, the first overnight camp for transgender children. She graduated from Broward Virtual School in 2019 and was a valedictorian of her class. She was accepted to Harvard University but has deferred her enrollment.
Career
Advocacy and ActivismAt age six, Jennings and her family began appearing on television to speak out about the challenges of growing up transgender. Her story was featured on national television shows such as 20/20 and The Rosie Show, where she appeared alongside Chaz Bono.
In 2007, Jennings' parents founded the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to provide support to transgender youth. She is the honorary co-founder of the organization. In 2013, Jennings established Purple Rainbow Tails, a business where she creates and sells mermaid tails out of rubber to raise money for transgender children.
That same year, in a follow-up interview with Barbara Walters that aired on 20/20, the two discussed Jennings' two-and-a-half-year fight with the United States Soccer Federation, the governing body for the sport in the US, to allow her to play on girls' teams. With the assistance of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, she was successful in changing the USSF's policy, allowing transgender students to play.
Jennings co-authored the 2014 children's book "I Am Jazz" with Jessica Herthel, the director of the National Stonewall Education Project. The book chronicles her experiences growing up as a transgender child. According to the libertarian magazine Reason, "'I Am Jazz' is one of the most banned books in the U.S."
In 2014, Jennings was a guest at the GLAAD Media Awards, appearing on stage alongside Zach Wahls and Lauren Foster. That year, she was also named one of Time's "25 Most Influential Teens of 2014" and became the youngest person ever featured on Out's "Out 100" and the Advocate magazine's "40 Under 40" lists. She was also included in Out magazine's 2014 list of 100 Transgender People, named a youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign, and received LogoTV's 2014 Youth Trailblazer Award.
In March 2015, Johnson & Johnson announced that it had signed Jennings to appear in its Clean & Clear commercials. Jennings became the face of Clean & Clear's "See The Real Me" digital campaign and shared "the trials of growing up transgender." She has also been a model for the NOH8 Campaign. Additionally, she was a contributor for Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people, writing an entry on Laverne Cox.
Reality Television and Memoir
Jennings and her family's daily life is chronicled in the TLC reality series "I Am Jazz," which debuted in July 2015. The seventh season premiered on November 30, 2021. In 2016, Jennings published a memoir, "Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen."
Film and Television
In 2017, Robert Tonner and the Tonner Doll Company announced plans to release a doll modeled after Jennings. It was to be the first doll to be marketed as transgender. That same year, Jennings voiced the character Zady, a transgender teenage boy, in the season finale of the Prime Video animated series "Danger & Eggs," who sings about acceptance, helping the two main characters understand the importance of chosen family.
In 2018, it was announced that Jennings would star in a short film titled "Denim." It follows a transgender teenager named Mikaela and the aftermath of her leaked photograph in the girls' bathroom posted by an ex-girlfriend. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on July 20, 2019.
Personal Life
Relationships and IdentityIn 2012, Jennings discussed her sexual orientation with Barbara Walters during her 20/20 interview, saying that she was romantically attracted to boys and that she had some concerns about dating due to her transgender identity. In a Q&A video on her YouTube channel in July 2014, Jennings said that she is pansexual and that she loves people "for their personality," regardless of their sexual orientation or gender. In 2013, Jennings publicly discussed her desire to become a mother in the future.
Health
In an interview published in the April 11, 2018 issue of People, Jennings said that she had lost at least 30 pounds as instructed by her surgeons so that she could qualify for gender confirmation surgery, which was scheduled for June 20, 2018. The surgery was successful, but she experienced post-operative complications that required a second procedure. Dr. Jess Ting and Dr. Marci Bowers performed the surgery. Jennings has spoken about her struggles with mental illness and weight gain. On Instagram, Jennings has written that she has an eating disorder. After entering Harvard, Jennings began binge eating and gained nearly 100 pounds, causing her to defer her enrollment. She has said that her family shamed her for it.
