Jazz Jennings

Jazz Jennings is an American YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality, and LGBT rights activist. Jennings, a transgender woman, is notable for being one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as transgender, and for being the youngest person to become a national transgender figure.

Jennings received national attention in 2007 when an interview with Barbara Walters aired on 20/20, which led to other high-profile interviews and appearances. Christine Connelly, a member of the board of directors for the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, stated, "She was the first young person who picked up the national spotlight, went on TV and was able to articulate her perspective and point of view with such innocence." Her parents noted that Jennings was clear on being female as soon as she could speak.

Jennings is an honorary co-founder of the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which she and her parents founded in 2007 to assist transgender youth. In 2013, she founded Purple Rainbow Tails, a company in which she fashions rubber mermaid tails to raise money for transgender children. That same year, in a follow-up interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20, they discussed Jennings' two-and-a-half-year battle with the United States Soccer Federation, the governing US body for the sport, to allow her to play on girls' teams. Aided by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, she succeeded in changing the USSF's policies to allow trans students to play.

In 2014, Jennings was a guest at the GLAAD Media Awards, named one of "The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014" by Time, and recognized as the youngest person ever featured on Out's "Out 100" and Advocate's "40 Under 40" lists. She was also named a Human Rights Campaign Youth Ambassador and received LogoTV's 2014 Youth Trailblazer Award.

Jennings hosts a series of YouTube videos about her life, titled "I Am Jazz", and stars in the TLC reality TV series, "I Am Jazz", which focuses on her life with her family as a teenager and as a transgender youth. In 2016, Jennings published a memoir, Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen. Jazz started attending Harvard University in 2019.