A tough call. Jazz Jennings got candid when she revealed the reason she chose to defer her start at Harvard University.
“I wanted to share some news. After careful consideration I have decided to take a break before starting at Harvard,” Jennings, 18, captioned an Instagram post on Tuesday, October 1, showing her posing in a yellow floral dress as she’s surrounded by green plants. “It wasn’t an easy decision but it is the right one for me. These past few years have been so full and busy that I realized I could use some time to refocus and recenter to be the strongest version of myself.”
Jennings continued by noting how she is “so grateful to have the support of my parents and Harvard in making this decision.” However, she concluded by stating that she looks “forward to focusing on some self-care and getting prepared to start this exciting next chapter in my life.”
Jennings, who graduated in June from Broward Virtual School in Florida, announced her plans to be a part of the Ivy League school’s Class of 2023 in May. At the time, she said she was “so stoked for this next chapter of my life.”
“Feeling so blessed and grateful right now🙏🏽❤️,” she wrote on Instagram. “Thank you so much to my incredible family for your unconditional love and support; none of this would be possible without all of you. I can’t wait for what’s to come!”
Jennings became a household name when she documented her journey as a transgender teenager on TLC’s I Am Jazz. The show debuted on the cable network in 2015, and a sixth season of the docuseries is slated to air in 2020.
The Being Jazz author underwent a successful gender confirmation procedure in June of last year. Speaking to ABC News a few months after the surgery, Jennings said that it was something she’d wanted since she “was 2 years old.”
“It was like a dream. It was,” she told the news outlet in October 2018. “This is a moment that I had always envisioned and just experiencing it was so surreal. I was like, I can’t believe this is happening.”