This wasn’t a fieldwork, but I felt like I had to make a post about it. Over winter break, each group had to choose a book about our topic. My group chose “Being Jazz” written by Jazz Jennings. Jazz is a 16 year old transgender girl. She has been recognized by President Obama, and The Trevor Project, and she has won many awards including being one of the 25 Most Influential Teens of 2015. She has her own TV show on TLC called I Am Jazz. Her book included a lot of stories from when she was younger, and stories from just a few years ago. She talked about how she first knew she felt like a girl. She said ever since she was two, she dressed up in her mom’s high heels, and her older sisters dress up. Her parents were supportive and just thought she liked princesses and dressing up. They let her wear whatever she wanted at home, but when they were leaving their house, they would make Jazz put on her regular clothes. Eventually, her parents discovered that Jazz didn’t just like dressing up, she felt like a girl. She didn’t want to be a boy because she felt like she didn’t fit in as one. She slowly made her transition. One of the biggest struggles she wrote about was her soccer team. She loved soccer and she was really good at it. She was playing on the girls team when she was making her transition. The coach let her and they signed off on it. But then as she grew up, the team had to ask her to leave the team because even though she felt like a girl, they said she was still biologically a boy. She was really upset because she didn’t want to be looking like a girl on a boys team, and she loved her teammates. Her dad fought for multiple years to keep her on that team. She eventually won the battle and she was allowed to play on the girls team. She shared many other experiences she went through in her life. Including the organization that she helped found with her mom. It is called TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation. I looked it up, and I found the contact page. I gave them an email saying we read “Being Jazz” and we were really inspired by it. I talked about the Social Justice Project, and what we are working on. I said it would be amazing if we could ask a few questions to Jazz or even Skype her. I got a response a few days later for Jeannette Jennings, Jazz’s mom. I was so excited because she said although Jazz couldn’t Skype because of her contracts, we could email a different email with questions for Jazz. So my group came up with some questions for her. I sent them out and hoped for a response. Jeanette said that she was going to pass them onto Jazz and we should get a response in a few days. About a week later, today, we got a response email! Jazz answered our questions and her answers were really great! Here are the questions and her answers:

While writing the book, did you feel like there were some stories that you considered not sharing because maybe they were too personal? Or did you feel very open writing the book?

I’m a pretty open person. I think I shared many personal stories in my memoir. I had to limit what I included, otherwise, the book would have been too long. There were a couple of incidents I didn’t share, because they were very embarrassing.

Do you look back at the book and want to add something in, or take something out?

I have no regrets in life, I’m very pleased with the way the book turned out

How has fame changed you? And when did you first notice that you were concidered ‘famous’ or had almost a fan base?

I don’t consider myself famous, so the recognition I receive definitely hasn’t changed me at all. I’m just me!
I’m a very humble person. I’m just trying to open hearts and minds, and the media gives me the opportunity to utilize a large platform. When I started to creating YouTube videos, I realized that a lot of people were interested in hearing what I had to say. That’s when I first realized that I had, “fans”.

What did you learn about yourself while writing the book, or filming your show?

I’ve learned that it’s a lot of work! Especially, filming the show. It’s very time consuming, but worth every moment.

We learned that the situation at school wasn’t always the best, have things improved?

School hasn’t been much of a problem lately. There have been a few minor incidents with people being rude to me; since high school began, but otherwise the kids are accepting. Personally, I don’t like school. It’s an academic means to an end. I just want to get through it so I can begin leading life on my own terms.

How do you deal with people who don’t completely understand your story? And the people who don’t want to understand your story?

I almost always ignore those who aren’t kind to me. I can’t reach everyone. There will always be people who don’t accept me.

You are such an inspiration to people all over the world in different situations. What advice would you give to people who are going through the same situation you went through, or maybe even worse situations?

I always tell kids to be proud of who they are. I encourage them to emerge from the shadows and live their lives authentically. I know it’s hard and scary, but everyone deserves to be happy. Many kids don’t have accepting parents. My heart goes out to them. I tell them to find acceptance with friends, other family members, and adult mentors. I let them know they the shouldn’t give up hope because things will get better.