Getting honest. Jazz Jennings attends an advocacy meeting with her brother Sander Jennings on season 7 of I Am Jazz tackles questions about her personal life — including her decision to lose weight.
“I honestly feel beautiful every shape and size. I love my body the way it is. But I will say that I am trying to lose weight for health reasons,” Jazz, 21, explains to a group of people in Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip of the Tuesday, December 7, episode of the TLC series. “I have to feel good, too, and I don’t feel good with some of the foods that I have been eating. I really am working on this weight loss so I can be healthier and more me.”
The reality star also discusses whether she was happy with the results of her 2018 gender confirmation surgery.
“It definitely lives up to everything I fantasized for so many years of my life. I asked my mom when the good fairy is going to wave her magic wand and turn my penis into a vagina. It was my dream to undergo this surgery even from a young age,” the YouTube personality explains. “Even though I did experience a huge complication, I feel like I finally have the body I always wanted and I have that mind-body alignment that just wasn’t there before. I feel like I’m complete.”
Since her reality series began in 2015, Jazz has been candid about the various ups and downs she’s experienced in her life. Ahead of the November debut of season 7, the Florida native took to social media to discuss her complicated relationship with food.
“As many of you have noticed, over the past few years, I have gained a substantial amount of weight. I suffer from binge-eating disorder, a disease in which I’m not only addicted to food, but I eat it in large quantities,” Jazz wrote in June alongside side-by-side photos of herself. “My binging, along with an increased appetite I experience from some of the meds I’m on, has caused me to gain almost 100 pounds in a little less than 2 years.”
At the time, Jazz explained that she chose to share her journey publicly because she wanted to hold herself “accountable” when it came to addressing her weight gain.
“I’m ready to change my ways; I’ve been saying I’m ready to turn over a new leaf, but I’m running out of trees now,” she continued. “I’m ready to take the initiative and create positive changes when it comes to my health and body.”
The TLC personality admitted that although she has plenty of support in her life, she is the only one who can commit “toward bettering myself,” adding, “I know I have the power in me to lose the weight, and I intend on sharing my progress with all of you. Love you all, and thanks for understanding the battle I’m fighting to win.”
Jazz isn’t the only one in her family who has benefited from expressing themselves on the series. In next week’s episode, her 23-year-old brother opens up about dealing with people making assumptions about his sexuality.
“It doesn’t really bother me when someone is like, ‘Hey, are you gay?’ I’ve gotten it so many times that it has just gotten repetitive. But, like, back in the day I let it bring me down and make me question myself,” he says at the meeting with his sister. “But then when I looked at myself in the mirror, I am just like, ‘I know what my attraction is to.’ I found that confidence and I’ve shared that in videos and now here today with all you guys.”
He adds: “I identify as cisgender and heterosexual. But not a day goes by that people do not question my sexuality and ask me if I am gay or anything like that. To all the cisgender, heterosexual allies out there, anyone who questions your sexuality shouldn’t make you question yourself.”
I Am Jazz airs on TLC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
