CHICAGO (WLS) — As Pride Month is celebrated across the country, one Chicago family is opening up about how a sister’s journey and a brother’s steadfast support helped inspire a national effort to build understanding around transgender and non-binary youth.
That effort became the GenderCool project, an initiative rooted in both personal experience and family support.
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For Chazzie Grosshandler, that support began at home — especially with her older brother. She said his immediate acceptance gave her the confidence to live openly as her authentic self, and ultimately helped shape a broader mission to make that same kind of understanding possible for others.
“He didn’t question it, which makes me so grateful because he just simply embraced it,” Grosshandler said.
Grosshandler said she understood her identity from a young age. The turning point came one morning when she was in fourth grade and decided to share that truth with her family.
“It wasn’t until one morning in fourth grade: I told my parents and my siblings. I said, ‘I’m not just a boy who likes girly things; I am a girl,’” Grosshandler said.
Her big brother gave her the confidence to tell the rest of the world.
“Playing dress up, she would walk around with a pillowcase on her head and have it be long hair, all of those things. It didn’t change, like, who she is as a person was the same,” Lev Grosshandler said.
The six-year difference only amplified the love Lev Grosshandler had for his little sister.
They say their sibling love helped Chazzie Grosshandler through her gender transition, especially when others didn’t understand it.
“A friend of mine, after I came out, she said, ‘I can’t be your friend anymore, and God is crying because you’re transgender.’ She said that to me in fourth grade,” Chazzie Grosshandler said.
“We saw that there was this void in sharing positive stories of who trans and non-binary people are,” Lev Grosshandler said.
A 2025 Gallup poll shows nearly 23% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+. That rate nearly doubled since 2012.
It’s a big part of why the Grosshandler family started the GenderCool project: a youth-led nonprofit organization dedicated to getting rid of the misconceptions about transgender and non-binary youth.
“It was never about us. It was never about the Grosshandlers or our family. It was about what the experience of just loving your kid represents,” mother Jen Grosshandler said.
Four White House visits, countless cover stories and several national interviews later, the Grosshandlers are changing the conversation around gender identity.
“There is chosen family out there for you,” Chazzie Grosshandler said.
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