Jenelle Hutcherson (born November 15, 1985) is an American hair artist, activist, public figure, designer, youth mentor and visionary.
Hutcherson became a name in the LGBT community, the pageant community, and made headline news in media such as NBC, CBS, KCAL9, Huffington Post, After Ellen, The Advocate, NOH8 Campaign, Courage Campaign, GLAAD, SDGLN (San Diego Gay and Lesbian News), Curve Magazine, GreaterLongBeach.com, Press-Telegram, and Los Angeles Times.
In middle school, Jenelle was bullied for having gained quite a bit of weight and could not afford name brand clothing classmates wore.
In beauty school, she was faced with more adversity, as she was scrutinized by the owner for being openly gay and even was told that she would never make it as a hairstylist by one of the instructors.
This was her turning point, to quit living her life as an adult bully and use her energy God gave her for good; to help, not to hurt and spread hate.
In October 2010, while working at The Den Salon, just 2 weeks before the 2011 title would be given to Monique Villa, Justin Rudd, the director of Miss Long Beach and Southern California Cities Pageant, and Jenelle had an epic conversation that would forever change the way the world looks at pageants, women, the LGBT community and Long Beach.
Justin and Jenelle discussed wardrobe, (tuxedo and swimwear), and as a result it was decided that she could not do this until the next year (November 2011 for 2012 title) being that it would be different from what many originally signed up for and that it would change the pageant world in Long Beach and soon California.
After pioneering and seeing the response, Jenelle just had to enter the Miss California USA 2012 pageant in order to reach more people.
Now as a mentor at the LGBTQ Center of downtown Long Beach MYTE Program, a well-known hair artist specializing in Three-Dimensional haircut/color, a designer for her own tuxedo line and swimwear line, a Scholarship for Tuxedos program in her name, and a pioneer as being the first openly gay pageant participant in local and state history (Miss Long Beach Nov.2011/Miss California USA Jan. 2012) she has succeeded in overcoming the obstacles she has faced, as well as becoming a good example to youth.