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.
00:21He bumped right into a pole and then kept walking.
00:25I thought it was hilarious that someone would not pay attention to what was right in front of them because
00:30they were so curious about me.
00:34I've always said that I can write a book on stairs.
00:36I could actually write a whole novel on different types of stairs because I feel like I know exactly what
00:45people are thinking when they stare at me.
00:48There's a stair where someone is like, I don't know if she's an adult or a child.
00:54Then there's the other stair 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,
01:03and they look at me and they look somewhere else, and it's like, I know that you're staring at me.
01:06You're just pretending like you're staring at something else.
01:09So I think a lot of the times, I'm the first little person that people see, and because of that,
01:15it's shocking.
01:17And I get that. I actually understand that because just like anybody, you see something that you've never seen, it's
01:23very 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 bad thing.
01:37We weren't invited!
01:38The nerd!
01:39The girl!
01:40The prejudice!
01:41As if you've got something to wear to a wedding.
01:43Hey, we're all going to keep up nice.
01:52I have a spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.
01:56I know, it's a really long name, and it sounds scary, but it's really not that bad.
02:01It's a type of dwarfism that comes from a spontaneous genetic mutation.
02:07And 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.
02:34But, 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.
02:44And the more that stories can tell my story, or other people like me, the world can learn from us.
02:54And Hyde is, forget it.
02:57It's, it's nothing to me.
02:58It's really nothing.
02:59Because all it is, is a measurement.
