00:00Funny story, I was walking towards the subway and I noticed across the street that some guy had noticed me
00:09and he was staring at me dead straight in the face, like in shock, not even paying attention to what
00:16was in front of him.
00:17And the next thing you know, he bumped right into a pole. He bumped right into a pole and then
00:23kept walking. I thought it was hilarious that someone would not pay attention to what was right in front of
00:30them because they were so curious about me.
00:34I've always said that I can write a book on stairs. I could actually write a whole novel on different
00:40types of stairs because I feel like I know exactly what people are thinking when they stare at me.
00:48There's a stare where someone is like, I don't know if she's an adult or a child. Then there's the
00:54other stare where they're like, I'm so confused. I'm going to walk away.
00:58Then there's stairs where they look at me and they look somewhere else and they look at me and they
01:02look somewhere else and they look at me and they look somewhere else and it's like, I know that you're
01:05staring at me. You're just pretending like you're staring at something else.
01:08So I think a lot of the times, like I'm the first little person that people see. And because of
01:15that, it's shocking. And I get that. I actually understand that because just like anybody, you see something that you've
01:22never seen. It's very shocking.
01:24So I understand that. But I would rather someone take a moment to ask me a question or just reach
01:32out than to just stare.
01:34No, it's a wedding.
01:36We weren't invited.
01:38Then no.
01:39The call.
01:40The prejudice.
01:41As if you've got something to wear to a wedding.
01:43Hey, we're all going to clean up nice.
01:51I have a spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita. I know it's a really long name and it sounds scary, but it's really
01:59not that bad.
02:01It's a type of dwarfism that comes from a spontaneous genetic mutation.
02:06And basically what it is, is it's a mutation of the collagen type 2 gene.
02:11It's the gene that helps us have cartilage in between our joints.
02:17So it's, yeah, it's a really complicated thing, but it's the cards that we're dealt with.
02:22You know, for some reason this mutation happens and I'm born with short stature and I have to go through
02:30all this medical and social difficulties.
02:33But, you know, it's, it's, I'm also a person and I have feelings and I think that there's power in
02:44storytelling.
02:45And the more that stories can tell my story or other people like me, the world can learn from us.
02:54And how it is, forget it. It's, it's nothing to me. It's really nothing because all it is, is a
03:02measurement.
03:03To come.
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