Jessica Kellgren-Fozard (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Kellgren-Hayes; born 25 January 1989) is a British

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

r and television personality. She is known for her videos on disability awareness,

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

history, and vintage fashion. She began making YouTube videos in 2011 and has since gained over a million subscribers.

Early life

Kellgren-Fozard was born in

Camden, London The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

and grew up in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. Her mother, Lee Kellgren, is a

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

artist and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

, and her father, Derek W. Hayes, is an animator and director. She has one younger brother. She is the granddaughter of

Jonas Kellgren Jonas Henrik Kellgren (11 September 1911 – 22 February 2002) was a British physician and the first professor of rheumatology in the United Kingdom at the University of Manchester. He became Vice-Chancellor of the university and dean of the ins ...

(1911–2002), the first professor of

rheumatology Rheumatology (Greek ''ῥεῦμα'', ''rheûma'', flowing current) is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatolog ...

in the UK at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. She is of Swedish, American, and Russian descent on her mother's side. Kellgren-Fozard is a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

and attended

Sidcot School Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of ...

Winscombe Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare and southwest of Bri ...

. She finished her secondary school education at

Cotham School Cotham School is a secondary school with academy status in Cotham, a suburb of Bristol, England. The catchment area for this school is Cotham, Clifton, Kingsdown ,southern Redland, Bishopston, St Paul’s and Easton The school shares a sixth fo ...

at the age of 19. She initially pursued a local BTEC diploma in Art and Design. She then studied at the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Film and Screen Studies.

Career

Broadcasting

In 2008, she participated in the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

reality television series ''

Britain's Missing Top Model ''Britain's Missing Top Model'' is a British Reality TV modelling show for disabled women, aired on BBC Three. The premiere episode aired on 1 July 2008. The show courted controversy, with many arguing that the show made disability a spectat ...

'', finishing in third place. In 2014, she was on screen talent for Brighton-based LatestTV. In 2015, she co-hosted LatestTV's movie review series such as ''PostFeature'' and ''Movie Line'' and interviewed filmmakers on ''FilmFest''. In 2016, she hosted her own

educational entertainment Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment ...

television show called ''Quintessentially Jessica''.

YouTube

Kellgren-Fozard's videos cover a range of topics including vintage fashion and beauty, disability issues, and LGBT issues and history. In 2019, she partnered with

The School of Life The School of Life is an educational company that offers advice on life issues. It was founded in 2008 and has branches in London (headquarters), Amsterdam, Berlin, Istanbul, Paris, São Paulo, and Taipei. The company offers a variety of educ ...

for the YouTube Originals series "The School of..." on the

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

service, narrated by

Alain de Botton Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and philosopher. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993), w ...

where seven popular YouTube creators cover a philosophical topic important to them. Jessica's episode is about the secrets of happiness. In December 2020, fellow YouTuber

Daniel Howell Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author. He gained prominence through his YouTube channels ''Daniel Howell'' (formerly known as ''danisnotonfire''), which reached over six million subscrib ...

selected Kellgren-Fozard to be featured on YouTube U.K.'s creator campaign The Rise, in which ten established YouTube personalities each highlighted a "rising star" of their choosing.

Personal life

Kellgren-Fozard is deaf, which is caused by her disabilities: hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy, Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, and

postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition characterized by an abnormally large increase in heart rate upon standing. Symptoms may include lightheadedness, brain fog, blurred vision, weakness, fatigue, headaches, heart ...

. Her symptoms began appearing when she was a teenager. She is also blind in one eye and suffers from memory loss. In a July 2023 video, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

. Kellgren-Fozard is a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

. She lives in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

with her wife, Claudia, a former dentist. They married at a Quaker meeting house in Bristol, in September 2016. The couple announced on 1 January 2021 that Claudia was pregnant with their first child. Their son, Rupert Henrik Kan Kellgren-Fozard, was born on 4 June that same year. Kellgren-Fozard has been vocal about her

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

parenting of Rupert, making videos about it on her channel.

Awards and nominations

Kellgren-Fozard was awarded an honorary

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from the

University of Worcester , motto_lang = la , mottoeng = ''Aspire to Inspire'' , established = 1946 – Worcester Emergency Teacher Training College 1948 – Worcester Teacher Training College 1976 – Worcester College of Higher Education 1997 – ...

in 2018 after being nominated by students for her work in disability awareness.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kellgren-Fozard, Jessica Living people 1989 births 20th-century British LGBT people 21st-century British LGBT people Alumni of the University of Brighton Autism activists British activists with disabilities Deaf activists Deaf LGBT people Deaf television presenters English deaf people English lesbians English LGBT entertainers English people of American descent English people of Russian descent English people of Swedish descent English people with disabilities English Quakers English YouTubers Jessica LGBT people with disabilities LGBT Protestants LGBT YouTubers Mass media people from Bristol People educated at Sidcot School People from the London Borough of Camden People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder People with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome Television presenters with disabilities Television presenters with dyslexia YouTubers from London