I Am Jazz: Jazz and Jeanette Jennings Talk Reality TV, Misconceptions About Being a Transgender Teen

Jazz: Because my family always embraced me right from the start and showered me with unconditional love and support and acceptance, that's why that confidence was able to blossom and I was able to be who I am proudly. So it's thanks to them. If I was shut down at that time and didn't have such a supportive family, I couldn't be who I am, and therefore I probably wouldn't be as confident.

Jeanette: If she was forced to live her life as a boy, I don't think she'd be as confident. She'd be a completely different person, and hopefully alive, because so many of these kids…

Glamour: How did you prepare the rest of the family for this transition?

Jeanette: If you think about it, the boys are a couple years older than Jazz, so when they were four-years-old, Jazz was two, and acting like a girl. So they never had a little brother. In their minds they never had a little brother. But for Ari (Jazz's older sister), Jazz was her little baby, her little brother, and she loved it like a doll. In Ari's mind, this was her brother, but a girly brother. When it was time for Jazz to transition, it was hard for Ari because she was like, I'm the girl, I'm the princess, I'm the only girl.' It was her and three boys, and she wasn't ready to share that spotlight. We explained to Ari that this was the situation, these were the statistics, and it was like tough love. We explained that it was going to be a tough road [for Jazz] and she would need her big sister. And she said she loved Jazz and was going to be the best big sister to protect her. She completely turned around. She was eight years old, and Jazz was almost five.

Glamour: You explain in the show how you decided on the name Jazz, but tell our readers.

Jazz: My sister was Princess Jasmine in the play, Aladdin, so since she was my role model, I chose Jazz. We didn't want to use my birth name when we did the 20/20 special with Barbara Walters, so we chose that name.

Glamour: Is Jazz the name you go by privately, or just publicly?

Jazz: Yes, both.

Jeanette: I just recently started calling her Jazz.

Glamour: Really?

Jeanette: Yeah, once we started filming the show because I didn't want to [split the two]. She has always been Jaren to me, which is her birth name.

Glamour: How has it been with the cameras following you around for the series?

Jazz: It's definitely overwhelming at first. You don't have these people living in your house, but they're there almost five days a week! I guess they are kind of living there, using your toilet paper and everything. [Laughs] I remember at the end of the season, they bought us tons of paper towels and toilet paper! It was a lifestyle change [at first], but they really do capture our normal lifestyle, so it's great.