A transgender teen girl has penned the first ever childrens' book about gender identity and expression, making her one of the world's most influential kids under 18, News.com.au reported on Friday.
Jazz Jennings, a 14-year-old from Florida, said as child, she would correct her parents and tell them she was a good girl instead of a good boy. She was assigned male gender at birth, but began identifying as a girl at age 2. By age five, she had started transitioning to life as a female and was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder.
As puberty approached, she began taking oestrogen medication that would block the growth of body hair and begin breast development.
Her book, I am Jazz, is meant to help transgender teenagers feel supported. She describes herself as having a "girl brain, but a boy body."
"This is called transgender. I was born this way!" she said.
Jazz said other transgender kids email her all time with questions about their identity and describing how important she has been to them.
"Some people even write that, without me, they would have killed themselves," she said, according to the Herald Sun. "One kid said that they were going to walk into a street full of cars, and they decided not to because they thought of Jazz. "
Along with Malala Yousafzai, Jazz was named one of TIME magazine's 25 most influential teenagers. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, an organization Jazz's parents began in 2007.
