Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings

Having attended a Jazz Jennings interview during the American Library Association annual conference in June (and having scant prior knowledge of who she is–I’m probably the only such person in the world), I was impressed. She was your typical fifteen year old, other than the fact that she was being interviewed primarily regarding her LGBT advocacy. And while I didn’t have time to stand in the (long) line to get a copy of her book autographed, it sparked an interest. (Lucky thing I’m a librarian and can order books for our collection.)

I said in my post about Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston that there are serious books describing various, sometimes debilitating, trauma experienced by victims of rape, bullying, etc. However, similar to Hermione in Exit, Jazz has the benefit of strong family and friend support and so her transgender experience is vastly different and probably vastly better than many young girls and boys in similar situations. Both books are very positive.

In Being Jazz, Jazz describes the early feelings of being a girl in a boy’s body, wanting to wear girl’s clothing and play with dolls instead of trucks. She describes not being able to use the girl’s bathroom (it was interesting that the Orlando Convention Center had several unisex bathrooms), not being allowed to play on the girl’s soccer team. Yet, in the background, her parents were fighting the fights required to change the rules. I’m sure many (most) parents of transgender youth don’t have the knowledge or resources (time and money) to do all that the Jennings did.

She describes the onset of depression and how she handles it. She talks about friendship and shows a lot of spunk and self confidence when saying if someone doesn’t love her for who she is, then the friendship isn’t worth pursuing. She talks about the awards she’s won and the people she’s met.

Despite her experiences and the associated maturity, Being Jazz has the feel of being written by a fifteen year old (there’s no ‘with assistance from ___’ in the credits) and that’s good because maybe other fifteen year olds will be inspired by it…more so than if an adult wrote about being transgender.

No such book would be complete without a resource listing. Being Jazz includes the following: websites, depression outreach services, books for kids, books for teens and adults, educational books for parents of a transgender child and movies/tv.

All in all, Being Jazz was an enjoyable and educational read. It could be and should be a primer about what transgender means and how trans kids are no different than any other kid, having the same hopes and dreams.