Ready for the next chapter. Jazz Jennings revealed in a YouTube video vlog on Monday, June 4, that she is set to undergo gender confirmation surgery later this month.
The 17-year-old I Am Jazz star — who was born male but identifies as female — took to her YouTube page in a video titled “Preparing For Gender Confirmation Surgery” to detail the upcoming procedure, which she says she is “super excited for.”
“For this video, I wanted to talk about my upcoming gender confirmation surgery,” Jennings began the discussion before noting that it’s “coming up so soon” on June 26.
“I’m so looking forward to it. I’ve been looking forward to this my entire life,” she added before discussing the backlash she gets for talking about the topic, which some deem “too personal.”
Jennings continued: “The reason why I’m being so open and documenting my journey with this procedure is because I feel education is super important. If I put out this information for people to see, they won’t need to ask anymore questions. And also, it’s educational within the community as well. A lot of parents who have transgender kids are like, ‘What do I do? I don’t know much about this process.’ And seeing our show kind of helps them figure out what steps they could take to help their kids and what the journey might look like in the future.”
The TLC star then gushed over her “new genitalia,” exclaiming, “Like penis to vagina. That’s some serious s—t, y’all. I can’t believe it, I’m going to have a vagina!”
Jennings continued the video with her positive spirit and noted that it’s not her personality to “anticipate problems” before detailing the procedure in detail.
She concluded the video: “The surgery is exciting, my life is exciting and I want you all to enjoy the ride with me.”
Jennings — who documents her journey on the TLC reality show I Am Jazz — has helped pave the way for other transgender youth despite backlash that she’s received from other TV personalities on the same network.
As previously reported, Counting On star Jill Duggar’s husband, Derick Dillard, came under fire after writing a distasteful tweet referring to the teenager in November.
“I pity Jazz 4 those who take advantage of him in order 2 promote their agenda, including the parents who allow these kinds of decisions 2 be made by a child,” Dillard tweeted at the time. “It’s sad that ppl would use a juvenile this way. Again, nothing about him, just unfortunate what’s on tv these days.”
The network released a statement days later revealing that his views aren’t those of TLC.
“We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated in Counting On for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future. We want to reiterate that Derick’s personal statements do not reflect the views of the network,” the statement read. “TLC is proud to share the story of Jazz Jennings and her family and will continue to do so.”
