JD Samson was born August 4, 1978, in Cleveland, OH, under the name is of Jocelyn Samson. She dresses in an androgynous way and has become synonomous with Kathleen Hanna's feminist electropunk band Le Tigre. Growing up in Cleveland's suburb Pepper Pike, Ohio and attended Orange High School, she came out as a lesbian at 15 years old. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY in '00 with a degree in film.