Transgender doll based on US teenager Jazz Jennings to be launched at toy fair

The New York toy fair is set to launch the world's first ever transgender doll this weekend.

Based on transgender teenager Jazz Jennings, the doll has been made by Tonner Doll Company and will go on sale for £89.99.

The doll will be unveiled in an outfit that matches the clothes worn by Jennings on the cover of her second book, Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, and has her seal of approval.

She said in an interview with the New York Times: "Ever since I was little, I always loved playing with dolls.

"It was a great way to show my parents that I was a girl, because I could just express myself as I am. So this really resonates with me, because it was something so pivotal in my own journey."

Jennings became well known at the age of six after appearing on the ABC News TV show 20:20 in an episode about transgender children.

Since then, she has written books about her experience growing up. She was first spotted by the Tonner company CEO Robert Tonner when she appeared on a show at the age of 10 with Barbara Walters.

Tonner told the Times he was hoping that the doll, which is also expected to come in a 'red carpet' version, to be sold in larger toy retailers but said he did not know whether that would happen.

"I don't even know if the word 'transgender' will be on the package," he told the newspaper.

"She's a great kid. She's a very brave, special person. And that's what we're trying to get out there."