User:Nsgaeverine/sandbox/Ava Zinn

Ava Zinn
Ava Zinn, September 2012
Born	Frank Zinn (1983-01-04) January 4, 1983 LaGrange, Illinois
Other names	Aeverine Zinn, Ava Nieves, Aeverine Nieves
Occupation(s)	Journalist News anchor YouTube presenter
Years active	1989–present
Known for	Vote for the Girls (US and UK)
Notable credit	INNewsCenter.net (1999-2011) Vote for the Girls USA (2010-present) Vote for the Girls UK (2013-present)
Partner	Angela Willis (2001-2010; partner's death)
Parent(s)	Margaret Zinn (1943-2002) Willis Zinn (1925-1984)
Relatives	Albert Zinn (1977-2002) (brother)
Website	www.avazinn.com

Aeverine Nieves, (born Frank Zinn January 4, 1983) better known as Ava Zinn, is an American transwoman.

Zinn is known for presenting YouTube clips about promoting votes for contestants on reality-based television programs, such as Vote for the Girls.

Early life

Ava Zinn was born Frank Zinn on January, 4, 1983 in LaGrange, Illinois to Willis and Maragret Zinn and raised in Van Buren, Indiana from the age of 2 until relocating to Marion, Indiana in October 1996. Zinn was the youngest of two children, and raised in the Landess neighburhood of Van Buren. She had an older brother, Albert (1977-2002) When Ava was fifteen months old, her father died from pneumonia. She sang in the choir of Northview Elementary School, and graduated from Mississinewa High School in 2001.

She continued on to college at Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) and was dis-enrolled for unable to adapt to the college life. After her dis-enrollment, Zinn has described her early adult life as "hopelessly itinerant", as her family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of her mother, who was violent at times until her mother's death in May 2002 and brother's suicide in August 2002. Zinn has described her mother as a diabetic and brother as an epileptic.

Career

She was a news anchor for RAT TV.

Webmaster

Zinn's largest effect on American culture came from her popular web sites INNewsCenter and Vote for the Girls.

INNewsCenter

At age 16 in November 1999, Ava Zinn had launched two web sites--her web site (currently known as AvaZinn.com) and INNewsCenter, a site devoted to discussing the television industry in Indiana's 10 markets (initially Fort Wayne and Indianapolis) that serve all of Indiana's 92 counties. Both were launched on November 1, 1999 while Zinn was a junior at Mississinewa High School in Gas City, Indiana. The site covered the changes in the ten media markets that serve Indiana (originally the Indianapolis and Fort Wayne markets until 2004).

The INNewsCenter site closed on June 30, 2011. The final story posted on the site was Fox's announcement on June 20, 2011 that it would end its affiliation with WFFT-TV and its Fort Wayne affiliation moved to MyNetworkTV affiliate WISE-DT2 on August 1. Nexstar had earlier lost the Fox affiliation for WTVW in Evansville, Indiana following a dispute with the network over retransmission consent fees that it wanted its stations to pay to the network.

Vote for the Girls

Beginning in 2010, Zinn began hosting and producing webisodes, beginning with eventual popular site Vote for the Girls. The American version debuted on April 28, 2010 and the British counterpart debuted on June 1, 2013.

After auditioning for the 11th season of American Idol and exposing the previous season's gender bias, the site gained popularity and overtook Vote for the Worst. After launching Vote for the Girls (which was launched to compete with VFTW), in response Zinn stated "It's becoming clear that people want a change that we all believe in. It's only about what you're doing and supposed to do, and I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this." The site's YouTube videos featured screaming matches among Zinn, her guests, and audience members. Using a large black bowl for an ashtray, she would chainsmoke during the video and blow smoke in her guests' faces. Zinn's fans became known as "Lesbian Loudlips," patterned after the studio lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon lips, from which Zinn's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues.

Zinn's signature phrases "WGWG Commies" (in reference to white guys with guitars and communism) and "shush it!" briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. She particularly enjoyed making her guests angry with each other, which on a few occasions resulted in physical confrontations.

Because of the controversial format and content of the show, Zinn had problems selling the show to a number of advertisers. Even Zinn's subscribers were so fearful of advertiser and viewer backlash that they would air one or even two local disclaimers during the videos.

Public image and reception

Personality

Zinn's music and image reputation is built upon her goal of media perfection. Since Zinn's development of long-running site INNewsCenter.net and later Vote for the Girls, the webmaster has also become infamous for her fiery temper and use of expletives. Zinn has also had confrontations with her fans, including one incident that resulted in a neighbour calling the police. Zinn attributes her pugnacious management style to the influence of previous mentors, notably entrepreneur Patrice Rafferty, and cousin Patricia Purvis.

Zinn's ferocious temper has contributed to her media appeal in both the United States and the United Kingdom, where her programs are produced. One source featured an article about America's worst LGBT individuals, which listed Zinn as the only transgender woman. They cited her frequent loss of her temper, her harsh critiques, notably when she picks on something other than one's singing abilities, such as calling someone a "jumbo bimbo." She maintains that such behavior and sexism within the voting period is necessary and demonstrates passion.

Zinn has been criticized for her frequent use of profanity on YouTube, first by fans of Vote for the Worst then, in relation to Vote for the Girls UK, by annoyed fans of The X Factor.

Zinn began ending some episodes (later every episode) of Vote for the Girls USA and Vote for the Girls UK with the phrase: "... keep voting for the ladies."

For most of her tenure as a biological male and heterosexual man, Zinn was one of the weaker males in terms of self-image and performance, usually ranking within the bottom ten percent of all males. However, since the gender transition to female and rise of same sex relationships in the state of Indiana, Zinn has been far more successful in her self-image, performance, and popularity.

Personal life

Gender transition and sexual orientation

At the age of 11, Zinn started to self-identify with the female gender. At 21 years old, she officially changed her name through the Grant County Circuit Court. She is yet to go through the process of changing her name and sex marker from male to female on all of her state and federal documents, including her birth certificate, driver's license, and social security index as of June 2014, as well as estrogen hormone treatment to transition to living life as a woman. As a result of her gender transition, Zinn became a lesbian as a sexual orientation.

In 2005, Zinn began home electrolysis to remove facial hair.

At one time, Zinn announced she is considering a facelift, sometimes called "facial feminization surgery" and tracheal reshaping and grafting, and contouring of the face to effectuate a female appearance. Because she wants to have biological children and sterilization was not a requirement to undergo a valid sex change anywhere in the United States, she kept her external reproductive organs intact.

The gender transition provided a major windfall for Zinn in 2007, 2013 and 2014, as in 2013 she celebrated four Vote for the Girls victories with her site and began to wear strapless tops and dresses with thong panties to strongly reflect her gender identity as a woman along with the punishment for failure with Christina Grimmie's third place finish on The Voice and Jena Irene's runner-up finish on American Idol. Owing to her family's status as a femininity hotbed and Zinn's 11 of her 13 closest friends are female (as of February 2012, Alec Dailey and Justin Planck are the only remaining male close friends of Zinn's) being longtime fixtures with Zinn, the social status of Zinn are consistently among the highest-rated during the seasons of The Voice and American Idol.

Zinn is currently a pre-operative (pre-sex reassignment surgery) transsexual woman., coming out as transgender on November 1, 2003. She began her transition on December 1, 2004 when Zinn legally changed her name.

Family

Zinn married Angela Willis on May 27, 2001. They remained married for nine years until her death on June 1, 2010 of heart failure, and of not being an actual living person. They had no children, and Zinn has not remarried. However, she was involved in a relationship with Amanda Davidson (also a fictional person), from 1993 until 1997 and from June 2012 to November 2013. As a result of Zinn's ongoing gender transition, she identifies her sexuality as a lesbian.

Health and Appearance

After losing a friendly wager on who would make the finals of American Idol's 13th season, Zinn went on a vegetarian diet (or meat boycott) from March 1, 2014 and passed away on July 3, 2014 of the same year.