A Trans Person Covers "Nat Geo" for the First Time

From Cosmopolitan

For the first time in its history, National Geographic will feature a trans person on its cover. Avery Jackson, a 9-year-old transgender girl from Kansas City, will appear on the subscriber cover of the magazine's January 2017 issue in a portrait shot by photographer Robin Hammond. "The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy,” Avery says in the photo's caption.

Avery isn't a stranger to the spotlight, sharing her story on the YouTube channel of her mother, Debi Jackson, last year and appearing in the New York Times profile series "Transgender Today." "When I was born, doctors said I was a boy, but I knew in my heart I was a girl," she says in one of her videos. "Even though I was a girl, I was afraid to tell my mom and dad, because I thought they would not love me anymore or throw me out or stop giving me any food or anything."

Her parents, however, have been deeply supportive of Avery: Her mother, Debi Jackson - a conservative Christian - gave a widely publicized speech on her affirmation of her daughter's gender identity, while Avery's father Tom Jackson penned an essay for the New York Times in which he wrote, "I love my daughter for who she is without preconditions." On Wednesday, Debi Jackson tweeted a photo of her daughter's cover with the message, "I'm shaking so much I can barely type. Thank you for featuring Avery!" and the hashtag #transisbeautiful.

Indie Wire reports that National Geographic developed the issue to accompany its documentary Gender Revolution, which is hosted by Katie Couric and will air Feb. 6. In Couric's words, the film will explore "everything you wanted to know about gender but were afraid to ask.”

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