As part of its January 2017 issue exploring our evolving understandings and definitions of gender, National Geographic is featuring nine-year-old transgender rights activist Avery Jackson on its cover—the first time a trans person has made the cover of the magazine.
Jackson rose to stardom last year when she began documenting her transition with “Avery Chats,” a series of YouTube videos describing how she came to understand her identity at such a young age and eventually came out to her parents as trans.
“When I was born, doctors said I was a boy, but I knew in my heart I was a girl,” Jackson explained in her first video. “So I may have some boy body parts, but that’s not wrong, that is OK.”...
