‘I Am Jazz’: Jazz Jennings Receiving ‘Death Threats Almost Daily’

I Am Jazz returns for another season this week and will show viewers how Jazz Jennings handles a death threat while attending Harvard University. Jennings, 24, who has been sharing her experiences as a transgender woman with the world since she was 6, said she gets death threats daily. Although she feels safe at Harvard, knowing that a person who has her family’s address wants to hurt her is upsetting.

“I get death threats almost on a daily basis,” Jennings told PEOPLE before the I Am Jazz Season 8 premiere. “People will comment on my photos saying, ‘Burn in hell. Kill yourself. You’re in abomination.’” Fear really sets in when someone sends a threat to where she lives. It is a “really, really scary feeling knowing that someone is kind of stalking you a little bit and they have these ill intentions,” Jennings said.

In a preview scene, Jennings tells her mother Jeanette that the threats don’t stop. “It’s OK. Give me a hug,” Jeanette says. Jeanette then explained to the camera that this was “exactly” what her family has been afraid of. “There’s a person out there that knows where she lives,” Jeanette said. “I’m absolutely terrified because there’s no timeline on a death threat.”

Jennings feels “protected” at Harvard, noting that the administration has “my back and they’re going to handle any situation.” It doesn’t make things easier though. “It is really, really scary,” Jennings told PEOPLE. “And it’s sad that we live in a world where people want to kill others just for being who they are.”

The new season of I Am Jazz isn’t all about scary situations. Audiences will see her taking some big steps in her native Florida, and going out of her comfort zone as she dates. “I’m about to go on my first date in four years,” Jennings said in the preview. As she goes on more social activities though, her anxiety “takes over,” she said.

Jennings entered the national spotlight in 2007 when she was interviewed by the late Barbara Walters. In 2011, she was the subject of her first documentary, I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition, which aired on OWN. Her TLC series launched in July 2015 and she published a memoir, Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, in 2016. I Am Jazz Season 8 premieres on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC. The series is available to stream on Discovery+.