Jazz Jennings

Jazz Jennings, born Oct. 6, 2000, in South Florida, is an LGBTQ activist as well as a TV and YouTube star. Her YouTube videos, presented as a series called "I Am Jazz," document her life and experiences as a transgender teenage girl, which are also chronicled as part of her TLC reality series, also titled "I Am Jazz" (2015- ). Jennings first appeared in the public eye at the age of 6, when she began appearing on TV with her family to speak out about growing up transgender and the challenges she faced in doing so. She conducted an interview with Barbara Walters in 2007, and that same year she and her family founded the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to offer help and support services for other transgender children. Jennings also had to battle the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to be allowed to play on girls' teams. After two years, and with assistance from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the USSF changed their policies in order to ensure that transgender athletes would be able to play. Jennings then began to play soccer, and conducted another interview with Walters in 2013. That same year, she also released a book about her life for children called "I Am Jazz," which was co-written with Jessica Herthel of the National Stonewall Education Project. In 2015, Jennings became a spokesmodel for Clean & Clear and appeared in ads for the NOH8 campaign. Her memoir, "Being Jazz: My Life As a (Transgender) Teen," was published in 2016. In June 2018, Jennings underwent gender confirmation surgery. She has also been a Human Rights Campaign Youth Ambassador, and the recipient of a number of awards and honors, including "Out" magazine's "Out 100" list and "Advocate" magazine's "40 Under 40" list. She is the youngest person to appear on either list.