Jazz Jennings, the first reality television transgender activist, is now the world’s “first transgender doll.”
The Tonner Doll Company unveiled their “Jazz” doll, complete with feminine hair and makeup, to the market this week, and, across the country, parents of particularly woke children rejoiced, as they no longer had to stomach the hetero-normative gender binary when choosing toys.
Jennings, who was born male but identifies as female, entered the public spotlight when journalist Barbara Walters interviewed her in 2007 on 20/20. Jazz, who was 11 at the time, told Walters that from the moment she learned how to speak, she sensed she was “trapped in the wrong body” and decided to live as a girl.
The decision was controversially supported by Jazz’s parents, who allowed her to wear dresses and makeup privately and publicly. Her parents told the media that Jazz “came out” to the public on her 5th birthday, when she wore a one-piece girl’s bathing suit to her party.
On Barbara Walters’ show, they discussed typical tween subjects, as well as the sex reassignment surgery Jazz eventually planned to take to transition into a woman.
Jazz is one of the youngest people to be documented as transgender, garnering huge YouTube and Instagram followings. She has since published a memoir on her life as a transgender teen, been interviewed by Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey, and even took part in a short-lived TLC reality TV series called I Am Jazz.
The Tonner Doll company, which makes collectible dolls for adults, is sculpting the doll based on Jazz’s appearance along with the pink shirt and jean shorts Jazz sports on her memoir. It debuted at the New York Toy Fair this past weekend. A variation of the doll sports a sparkling white ballerina dress.
It did not specify whether the doll is “anatomically correct,” nor what that might look like with a transgender doll that has yet to undergo gender confirmation surgery.
Jazz told her fans on Instagram that the doll is “still just a regular girl doll because that’s exactly what I am: a regular girl!”
Unlike with its other dolls, Tonner intends to market the transgender doll to children, starting in July.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.