Carla Mooney - Caitlyn Jenner

Published in 2017 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2017 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any

form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mooney, Carla, 1970- author.
Title: Caitlyn Jenner / Carla Mooney.
Description: New York : Rosen Publishing, 2017. | Series: Transgender pioneers | Audience: Grades 7-12. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015048642 | ISBN 9781508171584 (library bound)
Subjects: LCSH: Jenner, Caitlyn, 1949- | Transgender people--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. | Transgender athletes--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. | Track and field athletes--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC HQ77.8.J46 M66 2016 | DDC 306.76/8092--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048642

Manufactured in China

O n April 24, 2015, nearly 17 million people turned on their televisions to watch Caitlyn Jenner (then known as Bruce Jenner, the name she was given by her parents at birth) sit down for an interview with ABC News journalist Diane Sawyer. For months, rumors had swirled around the Olympic champion and reality television star. Her appearance had changed over the previous few years, with noticeable plastic surgery to her face and a tracheal shave. She had grown her hair longer and had been spotted wearing earrings and nail polish. In recent months, the paparazzi storm surrounding her had intensified. Questions abounded: Was she a gay man? Was she a cross-dresser? Was she transgender? Photographers followed her every move. She endured the whispers, innuendos, and talk show jokes in silence. But on April 24, it was finally her turn to speak.

With cameras set up inside Jenner's Malibu home, the interview opened with an emotional Jenner welcoming Sawyer. Obviously uncomfortable and admittedly apprehensive, Jenner was quiet at first. She paused and then explained that she had been thinking about this moment for most of her life. Jenner told Sawyer that she had been confused about her gender identity since she was a young child. She explained that her brain and soul were much more female than male. And, for the first time in her sixty-five-year life, she revealed publicly that although she had been assigned a male gender at birth, she was, in fact, a woman.

Jenner's revelation that she was a transgender woman resonated around the world. Many transgender people watching that night were apprehensive, unsure of how someone with so much celebritywouldportrayand reflecttheircom-munity. Some, including Drian Juarez, manager of the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Transgender Economic Empowerment Project, were pleasantly surprised that the interview sensitively discussed gender pronouns and described in detail what it means to be transgender. Juarez and others praised the interview for discussing serious issues faced by transgender people, such as violence and poverty.

Jenner, because of her celebrity as an athlete and a reality television star, was now in a unique and powerful position. Going public with her transition, she had the ability to reach millions of peoplespanning several generationsthrough social media. Jenner's story became part of an expanding movement to raise awareness of transgender issues. Jenner helped put a highly visible face to the story, thereby improving visibility for other members of the transgender community.

While the public may mark the 20/20 interview as the beginning of Caitlyn Jenner's story, for Jenner, that story had begun sixty-five years earlier.

O n October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York, William Jenner and his wife, Esther, welcomed their second child into the world. At the time, William, a tree surgeon, and Estelle, a housewife, named their child William Bruce Jenner. Jenner was assigned a male gender at birth. Today, we know Jenner by her chosen name, Caitlyn Marie.

From a very young age, Caitlyn showed that she had inherited the family's athletic talent. In 1945, her father, William, had competed in the U.S. Army Olympics in Nuremburg, Germany, winning a silver medal in the 100-yard dash. Her grandfather had also competed in sports, running the Boston Marathon several times. By the time Jenner was two years old, her physical build and endless energy already hinted that she might one day follow her father and grandfather into sports. As a toddler, she was so active that her parents nicknamed her "Bruiser." They even had to put up a fence around their yard to keep her from bolting off. When she still managed to find ways out, William and Estelle resorted to tethering Cait-lyn to a clothesline anchored in the middle of the lawn to avoid her running off.