10 Facts About Trans Icon Jazz Jennings That Will Seriously Inspire You

Though labeled as a boy at birth, Jazz identified as a girl by the age of 2 and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria by the age of 5. With her parents’ approval, she started using hormone blockers when she was 11 and taking estrogen in high school, and she believes that made all the difference in her self-esteem.

“I have no regrets because it allowed me to prevent myself from going through male puberty,” she told ABC News in October 2018. “I feel like that’s why my dysphoria hasn’t been so bad is because I look in the mirror, and I see the girl that I am on the inside. But not every transgender person has the opportunity to do that.”

Jazz has only had one serious romantic relationship (as far as her fans know), but in a February 2016 interview with Rowan Blanchard for Dazed, she shared that she identifies as pansexual. “I think I’m physically attracted to guys but I know I could potentially be emotionally attracted to girls,” she said. “I’m just attracted to people for who they are on the inside. That’s what it is to be pansexual, you know – loving people for who they are on the inside, no matter their label. Just loving someone.”

As well as sharing her journey as a trans individual, Jazz has also been open about the fact that she’s an individual who suffers from depression, though she finds writing about her struggles with depression difficult. When asked by Teen Vogue in June 2016 how she copes with depression, she explained how she focuses on her inner resolve. “Instead of shutting down, I encourage myself to think positively, and move towards the light,” she said. “I encourage myself to shut out the depression and then I will be happy.”

Jazz is a storyteller by nature, and while she’s had plenty of experience in front of the camera, she’d love to spend more time behind the scenes as a filmmaker. “I think in the future I might want to go into the directing or movie-making business because I love coming up with stories,” she told Dazed. “I love coming up with these cool ideas and worlds in my mind, and I want to share them with people.” She added that she “would definitely want to do smart sci-fi, puzzle movies where people have to think and connect the dots but then come up with their own idea at the end.”

Jazz is an honorary cofounder of the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which she and her parents founded in 2007 to help assist transgender youth. In 2013, she also founded Purple Rainbow Tails, a company that allowed Jazz to sell rubber mermaid tails in order to raise money. While chatting with Dazed, Jazz explained that her fascination with mermaids began when she was a kid.

“It’s actually very interesting because a lot of transgender people gravitate towards mermaids, and they say it’s because they have no genitals – so it’s like wow, mermaid, cool, nothing below the waist, just a beautiful tail,” she said. “For me it was an attraction right from the start. I would have dreams about being a mermaid, so I decided to become one – I created this silicone mermaid tail when I was 12 and then I started making more of them. They were cool [and] I started selling them!”