JAZZ IT UP

Meet The Most Influential Transgender Teenager Of 2014

Elle+Fanning+Jazz+Jennings+24th+Annual+GLAAD+S6zoxH7BDSdlTime magazine recently released their list of the 25 most influential teens of 2014, which is fitting since a 17 year old won the Noel Peace Prize last Friday (yes, she made the list). How’s that for making you feel unaccomplished.

It’s a veritable who’s who of the Twitterverse — actors, athletes and future startup CEOs — but one teen in particular caught our attention.

Jazz Jennings first came to the public eye when she released a series of videos on YouTube about her experience being transgender. Since then it’s been one media appearance after then next, and now she’s working on a children’s book aimed at teaching tots the basic concept of what trans means.

Here’s what Time has to say about the 14-year-old:

In a landmark year for transgender visibility in the media, Jennings stands out for how much she’s already accomplished. She’s been interviewed by Barbara Walters, met Bill Clinton and become the youngest person ever featured on the Out 100 and The Advocate‘s 40 Under 40 lists. She even co-wrote a children’s book, I Am Jazz, loosely based on her life (she started living as a girl at age 5), that aims to help other kids understand what transgender means. “I have a girl brain but a boy body,” Jazz says in the book. “This is called transgender. I was born this way!”

Here’s her heartwarming tete-a-tete with Babwa Wawa:

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