Meet Rebekah

AUTHOR

Rebekah is a thirteen-year-old who is passionate about finding joy and spreading hope. She’s an active member of her community as an athlete, musician, and performer. Rebekah is a field hockey player, runs track, plays clarinet, and regularly graces the stage in school and community musical productions. A self-proclaimed “nerd”, she’s also a Mathlete and a proud National Junior Honor Society member. Rebekah especially enjoys reading and writing, and she published her first Op-Ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2019. Perhaps most exciting, Rebekah is a real-life Marvel super hero! She was featured on Marvel’s Hero Project, a docu-series celebrating real kids making a difference in their communities. She was immortalized in her very own comic, the Mighty Rebekah, making her one of Marvel’s first transegnder superheroes.

Rebekah’s journey into public advocacy began at 10 years old when a picture of her holding a sign went viral. With her pink pigtails, cute little Rebekah made a bold statement that transgender people aren’t scary at all. They’re just like other people. Now, Rebekah meets with legislators, shares her story with educators and healthcare professionals, and advocates for transgender and non-binary kids. In 2018, she testified before the New Jersey State Legislature in support of a bill that would require schools to include the accomplishments of LGBTQ people and people with disabilities in curriculum. That bill was signed into law in 2019. Rebekah believes in the power of LGBTQ+ representation in books and media, and she’s currently hosting a book drive to donate hundreds of diverse books to schools, libraries, and organizations across the country.

Rebekah shares her experience in a way that touches hearts, changes minds, and inspires positive change. She’s received awards for her activism from NYC Pride and Jersey City Pride. Her work has been featured by media outlets around the world, including but not limited to People, Teen Vogue, British Vogue, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, Girls’ Life, Popsugar, NowThis, Mic, The Advocate, Pride, Tamron Hall Show, Forbes, Good Day Philadelphia, and Good Morning Britain. By being an out and proud transgender young person, she inspires people of all ages and identities to show up fully as themselves and dare to make the world a better place.

When she’s not busy changing the world, you can find her binge-watching cooking shows, hanging out with friends, and hiking with her mom, dad, and two little brothers.

Meet Max

ATHLETE

Max is a bright, freckle-faced middle schooler with a musical mind and a drive to stay active. He began Tae Kwon Do at age four and by age nine had already earned his black belt. He then moved to gymnastics. Max was quickly recruited to join the competition team and now competes in meets all across the country. When he’s not doing back handsprings in the backyard or handstands in the living room, he can be found either playing an instrument like the cello, vihuela, or ukulele, or playing with his rescue cats, Babykitty and Mr. Poopers.

Max has high marks in school and is in several advanced placement classes. He and his friends spend their time doing a million pushups at recess and hanging out after school on the trampoline in someone’s backyard. His cd player is usually a mix of Tom Petty, the Beatles, and Leon Bridges, and he dreams of being a famous musician or Olympic athlete someday.

Max lives with his little sister (Lulu) and his mom and dad who love him unconditionally.

Meet Hunter

AERIAL ACROBAT

Hunter is an aerialist, dancer and animal lover. In between their busy schedule of school, aerial dance, dance team and volunteering at the animal shelter, they enjoy horseback riding and spending time with the amazing humans in their life. At home, Hunter has fostered over 60 kittens through the local humane society and has learned to bottle feed, administer IV medications and is great at getting them ready for their forever homes.

At school, Hunter is focused on studying physiology and health occupations. They love learning and doing the best that they can to influence others positively. Hunter is an active member of their school’s GSA and has represented their school in several day-long state-wide GSA summits. Hunter is an active participant in several other social justice matters and is seriously committed to trying to use sustainable and eco-friendly products.

Hunter’s favorite food is tofu, rice, and watermelon. Hoodies are Hunter’s favorite article of clothing although their sneaker collection is growing!

Hunter wants to inspire people to be themselves. Hunter loves to say “You are perfect just the way you are. We all are.”

Meet Ashton

COLLABORATOR

Ashton is a bright, comical, compassionate, fifteen year old, currently in his freshman year of high school. He comes from a big family with a brother and three sisters, two of whom are currently fostered. Ashton is all about social interaction and believes that spending time with family and friends brings out the best in everyone.

He came out as transgender during the summer of 2016, right before the start of seventh grade, and his love for activism truly began. He found himself holding leadership roles in school and the broader community, intent on representing the voice of black, latino, and LGBTQ+ youth nationwide.

Ashton’s advocacy work has been featured in The Advocate, The Boston Globe, Do Something, Intomore Magazine, The Berkshire Eagle, and many more. In addition, Ashton was honored to receive The Livingston Pangburn Award for Youth Activism presented by BAGLY and MTPC.

As a Collaborator, he seeks to create and maintain strong communities. He believes that together, we can create an environment that will help foster love, acceptance and partnership among our LGBTQ+ youth and all young people.

Meet Chazzie

VOLUNTEER

Chazzie is a thirteen-year-old, eighth grader who has a passion for volunteering and spends much of her free time after school and on weekends helping others through multiple organizations in Chicago.She is also deeply interested in other cultures and languages and is determined to be fluent in Spanish by the time she graduates high school.

Chazzie is focused on living her life with purpose.Her own journey was the inspiration behind The GenderCool Project, a national storytelling campaign and movement helping to replace misinformed opinions with positive, powerful experiences meeting dynamic young people who identify as transgender.She realizes that by telling her story, she is helping people understand that kids who identify as transgender are just like all other kids. She’s spoken at corporations, conferences and schools across the country and has been featured in national and local media including The Today Show, New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, Pink News, WGN-TV, Chicago Sun Times and Windy City Times.

Like many teenage girls, Chazzie loves to follow beauty gurus. Her current favorite is Jeffree Star.

Chazzie can usually be found with her best friend Creek, who she’s known since they were babies. Chazzie has three older brothers, Max/22, Lev/20, Jess/18, and a Portuguese Water Dog named Flash.

Meet Eevee

ACTOR

Eevee is an 11-year-old middle schooler who transitioned when she was 8, and immediately took on a leadership role in her school, holding a Q&A for fellow students and creating a social media campaign for the school’s Design Challenge. She was named a finalist and took to the stage with a PowerPoint presentation on Gender Equality and anti-bullying. Having skipped 3rd grade, Eevee is one of the youngest students in her class, but her love for knowledge and her growth mindset earned her a spot on the high honors roll.

Eevee began appearing in theater productions when she was 4, but she was 9 when she tried stand-up comedy for the first time and discovered her love for performing. Later that year her monologue audition earned her the role of a supporting character in Letters to Lucerne and she also performed a monologue as Sonia Sotomayor for her school’s Women’s History Month assembly.

She loves reading both fiction and nonfiction books, but she especially likes the “To All the Boys I Loved Before” and “Hunger Games” series. Her favorite stand-alone books are Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Hate U Give.

An avid athlete, Eevee competed on her school’s volleyball and basketball teams, participated in Girls On the Run and woke up with enthusiasm at 5:00 am to train with her school’s swim program. She loves to spend time with her friends and family, especially hiking, picnics and playing card games like Unstable Unicorns and Exploding Kittens. Always looking for ways to improve the world for all living creatures, she recently embraced a plant-based diet and does her best to be vegan.

Meet Lia

CONNECTOR

Lia is a thirteen-year-old 8th grader who loves to perform, sing, draw and compete on her school and club soccer teams. What fuels her the most, however, is connecting with people and hearing their stories and opinions. She is fascinated by the world around her, and tells her parents she’s loving life as a teenager.

Lia has always been focused on bringing truth to the forefront of every conversation. When she was eight years old, she was featured in one of the country’s first-ever documentaries by PBS’s Frontline on transgender young people titled “Growing up Trans.” Most recently, Lia worked with Freedom New Hampshire to pass a bill adding protections to transgender people in the state based on gender identity. She is on the speaker circuit in her state, regularly participating in panel discussions to help people replace their opinions with real experiences of meeting young people like herself.

Lia is the first to admit that keeping her room clean is a daily challenge. She’s much more interested in changing the world for the better and believes the more conversations we have, the stronger, healthier and happier we’ll all be.

Meet Daniel

PHOTOGRAPHER/FILMMAKER

Light-hearted, happy thirteen-year-old, middle schooler who is proud to be in a family with his parents, brother, one dog, three cats, and five chickens. Doing well in school is very important to Daniel because he would like to someday go to college, meet new people and get involved in campus life.

Daniel’s free time is frequently spent playing board games and directing films starring his friends and family. Swimming, kayaking, biking, camping, backpacking, and listening and singing along to music are all activities Daniel loves. Daniel considers himself a good friend and likes socializing with friends in person, or on FaceTime, Instagram and through video gaming. Daniel recently joined the Scouts and is a part of his school’s Unity Club. During his 7th grade year, Daniel participated in Connecticut History Day and earned first place for his documentary film on the unsung hero of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin. Daniel did fundraising for the organization Point of Pride, and shared a personal poem in front of his 7th grade class.

A very rewarding experience in Daniel’s life was when he was featured in the PBS Frontline Documentary, Growing Up Trans. Sharing his experience of being trans and facing his fears of being in front of the camera, helped grow his confidence and sparked his interest in photography and creating videos. A favorite quote that Daniel embodies in his life is by Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”

Meet Gia

ATHLETE

Gia is a 15-year-old high school sophomore. A high honors student, Gia also excels in sports. She was a member of her co-ed middle school cross country and track team since fifth grade. After transitioning from male to female before the start of eighth grade, Gia was uncertain about returning to the team. Her coach and teammates urged her to come back. She did and was named captain.

She earned all-state and all-conference and led the girls to one of their best seasons ever. Next, Gia tried her hand at field hockey, a sport she had never played.  She joined the all-girls field hockey team her freshman year of high school. Her speed earned her a place on the JV team, and, despite being a novice to the sport, she ended the season as the second highest goal scorer. Field hockey season just started again and once again Gia made the JV team.

In school, Gia maintains an A average with a full load of honors classes. She was a founding member of her middle school’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club and, in high school, is a member of the Peace Project and Family, Career and Community Service Leaders of America. She is also co-treasurer of her class. Gia loves hanging out with her besties, shopping, playing with makeup and being with family.

Gia was featured in People magazine’s “Coming Out Stories.” The video series, which was featured in the magazine and online at People.com and EntertainmentWeekly.com, was done in conjunction with the producers of “Love, Simon” and GLSEN, which aims to make schools safe and affirming for LGBTQ students. Gia has also been asked by the Human Rights Campaign to apply to be a national Youth Ambassador. 

Meet Landon

MUSICIAN

Landon is a 15-year-old junior who is passionate about music. He plays trumpet in the marching band, honor band, full orchestra, jazz band, and student-led brass choir. He is also a member of the music honor society. He has competed in All-Region, where he ranked 1st overall in the district during his eighth-grade year and has received division one rankings in all Solo and Ensemble competitions. In addition, he has also placed competitively through art, where he received a Gold Seal at last year’s VASE competition.

Landon came out as transgender when he was eleven years old, just before the start of his seventh-grade year. He transitioned at school in the eighth grade. During the early part of his transition, he found a voice for advocacy – not only for himself but also for his fellow trans youth and his community. He started a GSA at his middle school and helped found the GSA at the high school. He has participated in local and state initiatives to expand or protect trans rights and has testified in front of his school board and state legislators. He is currently working with a coalition of GSAs to strengthen his school district’s non-discrimination policy. His advocacy can also be seen through social media, where his honesty and vulnerability provides inspiration and puts a human face to the trans experience. Through openly sharing his experiences, he hopes to help others in their own, shared commonalities.

In early April of this year, Landon delivered the “Federal Club Pitch” at the Houston HRC Chapter’s annual gala. He was able to share his story with more than 1k people and helped to garner support towards HRC’s mission. He was also featured in a June issue of the Rolling Stone, an article entitled ‘Trans in the South: Meet Kids Finding Acceptance in the Bible Belt,’ where he discussed and shared his experiences, challenges, and triumphs as a trans youth living in the South.

On Instagram, Landon is considered a “Public Figure” and has over 31k followers. Through his posts, he aims to put forth authenticity regarding his identity, experiences, passions, etc. and accessible information pertaining to transitioning, politics, and the lgbtq+ community. Being visible on social media and in his everyday life, he says, is his way of giving back to the community in which has given him so much. He also hopes that by sharing his story openly and by being visible, he assists people of all ages, backgrounds, experiences, and stages within their journeys, as figures on social media had provided that same sense of comfort and relief when he first began to explore his own trans identity.

Meet Nicole

ASPIRING BROADWAY PERFORMER

Nicole is a 17-year-old musical theater actress with Broadway aspirations. She transitioned at age 13. She is a passionate advocate for transgender youth and for the rights of transgender people in her home state and nationally.

Nicole was recently featured in documentaries produced by “them.” of Condé Nast and NowThis. She was also featured in a Freedom for All Americans campaign video created to protect non-discrimination laws for transgender people in Massachusetts.

Nicole performed the National Anthem in front of 19,000 Boston Bruins fans for the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” campaign and is a finalist to perform with the Bruins for the 2018-2019 season. Nicole is an experienced speaker and panelist and has conducted countless media interviews for many major, national outlets including the New York Times and Megyn Kelly Today.

Nicole is an Actors’ Equity Membership Candidate (EMC) with 35 professional, semi-professional and community theater productions to her credit, including A Year with Frog and Toad, A Christmas Carol, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Misérables, Peter Pan, Shrek: The Musical, and Fiddler on the Roof.

Meet Stella

FUTURE POLITICIAN

Stella is a fourteen-year-old future politician who openly speaks about the importance of the youth voice. She began her political career at age ten when she spoke about safety and inclusion at a school board meeting. Since then, her platform has grown to include education, equality, and equity for all young people. Stella is working towards building a career in public office and teaching other youth how to get involved in their own communities.

Aside from politics, Stella plays violin, is an artist, and loves DIY projects. Traveling is one of her favorite things to do. Washington D.C. and Costa Rica are her favorite trips, so far. When not traveling, she is frequently found playing NERF wars with friends.