'I Don't Regret a Thing'
Jazz Jennings, star of TLC’s I Am Jazz wants to make something perfectly clear: she has zero regrets about being a woman.
Jennings was one of the youngest individuals to transition from male to female and her journey and life has been documented in her I Am Jazz series. Now in college, Jennings said she still deals with misinformation and false narratives about her life, mainly from right-wing hosts.
For the first time in two years, Jennings posted a YouTube, clarifying that she is happy with who she is and that any anxiety she expressed on I Am Jazz had nothing to do with her transition.
Jazz Jennings is being misgendered and falsely accused of regretting her transition
Joined by her brother Sander, Jennings read headlines that insisted she regrets her transition. One article repeatedly referred to Jennings using he/him/his pronouns. “Don’t misgender me,” she said in her YouTube video. “I am a woman. I use she/her/hers pronouns. Please understand that and respect that.”
Jennings added that headlines spouting that she regrets her transition are completely false. “I don’t know where people are coming up with this idea that I regret my early gender transitioning,” she said. “I have no regrets whatsoever. I’m an out and proud woman. I love being me. I love my body, I love everything about being a woman. And that’s just who I am.”
Jazz Jennings says mental health struggles have nothing to do with her transition
Jennings acknowledged that moments of struggle were filmed for the show. But she said almost all teens and young adults struggle with their identity and figuring out who they are.
“I mean, aren’t there moments where all of us don’t still feel like ourselves?” she asked. “Like I feel like me. I know who I am, but in certain moments, you kind of struggle or lose sight. And I think I might have said something that could be misinterpreted. So I’m here saying now that I am me, I am Jazz, I am a woman. I know who I am. And, I don’t regret a thing.”
She also said what people see on the show is just a young adult trying to figure out life and it has nothing to do with transitioning. “A lot of people think that my mental health issues have to do with getting the surgery or me being transgender, and they associate those things together. And that’s just not the case. The surgery only brought me joy and happiness,” she said.
She becomes emotional hearing people say her mother abused her
Jennings’ mother, who has been her champion, was also targeted. Jennings became emotional reading comments and headlines that referred to her mother as abusive for allowing her child to transition.
“That breaks my heart when people bring up my mother in a negative light because she has been such a shining star in my entire life,” Jennings said. “She is one of the most loving, caring, and nurturing people out there. And she has always loved me unconditionally, loved my siblings unconditionally, loved my dad. She’s amazing in so many ways. She has the hugest heart and all she wants to do is see me be happy, to see me smile, and to see me loving myself.”
“And she really is just a beacon of hope in our society because she’s the mother of all mothers,” Jennings continued. “And to see people saying that she abused me, I think that’s just crazy. It’s just crazy to me because I was the one who initiated my transition. I was the one who said, I am a girl, this is who I am. I want to transition and I want to be me.”
“My parents didn’t force me to be a girl. They didn’t encourage me. They just supported me and embraced me for who I am, as all parents should,” Jennings said. “All parents should be like my parents because they’ve allowed me to blossom into the young woman that I’ve always known I was. And I’m so happy to be me today. I’m so happy to be presenting as a woman and just feeling amazing. And it’s because of them that I’m able to say that I’m proud to be me.”
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