Jazz Jennings

I don't know what he does, but he's out doing it right now.

I'm prepping by doing this episode, and I know Jazz Jennings is here producing because this is going to be prepped for her.

She's going to be at our first PMRE in November.

I know all of the listeners are going to be excited to meet Jazz as we get to know her here on the show.

Bye,

everybody.

Upmarket is a production of Upmarket Media and is produced by Jazz Jennings and edited by Tessa Nelson.

Our wish for you this week is to not have to do any Friday Night Twilight shoots.

Within a few years, parents were going way beyond dresses and makeup and all the way to chemical castration, cross-sex hormones, and actual surgical castration.

See Jazz Jennings.

Well, let's look at the other side, the childification of adulthood.

I started noticing this in the 2010s when fully grown adults were putting bumper stickers on their cars telling everyone what Harry Potter house they belonged to.

And then one came out as trans and then they all had these like gender issues.

different ideologies and different identities so I guess the internet also acts in that way as a social contagion but I think we're a similar age I'm 23 and I remember one of the shows I was really into when I was probably 11 maybe was I Am Jazz or something and That, like, TLC reality TV show about Jazz Jennings, who was trans and she was a young kid, a biological male, sort of my age, going through this process.

And even in the traditional media, these children, and they were children, and looking back on it, I think that show, I mean...

Talk about exploiting your child.

Yes.

One of the memories that stays with me is helping connect Jazz Jennings' family with Barbara Walters.

I'm telling that as my own story, not claiming I single-handedly created what followed, but I was part of that chain of advocacy and introductions that helped transgender child and her family reach a national audience.

At the time, that felt like progress.

So you go to them and they say they gave their kid the surgery.

You know, Jazz Jennings is a really great example of this.

On the TV show, Jazz's mom is talking about forcefully, I recommend you all look up this clip.

I'm sure you've seen it, right? Jazz's mom is talking about how Jazz, so Jazz transitioned at 11.

Because they have to, in their mind, shield themselves from their own guilt, shame, and responsibility.

Yeah, I mean, I I have seen that clip and I am horrified by that.

I just I don't know in that case even how much of the responsibility does go to the totally messed up doctors who may have gotten into Jazz Jennings mother's head.

Right.

... was more so, you know, 2019, 2020, and that's when I really re- realized the power of my own voice.

I had been on my family's reality TV show on TLC called I Am Jazz, where I supported my trans sister, and that was my whole life.

Supporting my trans sister and being a amplifier is what I always thought my role was.

Mm.

So how has that been, uh, for you as a brother, to be able to, like, be that support system? Or how do you even regulate yourself of maybe some of the adversity that she's facing, you know? And, and that's kinda gonna lean into allyship of, how do you make it about them and maybe not even about, may- maybe not necessarily about yourself.

So I guess there's, it's pretty multi-question there, but what was that kind of experience, kinda seeing so many eyeballs on her and her lived experience, and their opinions of her, as a brother? And kinda, and how did that help develop your allyship, I guess?

Being a brother to Jazz, my older sister Ari, my twin brother Griffin, is my greatest joy in life.

Like, genuinely, being a brother means so much to me.