Jonna: I was told that I was never going to be a dancer,
because of how I look.
I would say that being a dwarf, I never accepted who I fully am.
And once I did that it like freed me from everything.
Because look I can’t reach that far.
Hi, my name is Jonna Ross, I am 29 years old.
I am three feet tall which is as tall as a meter stick or yardstick.
So the type of dwarfism I have is Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia,
which means all my limbs are just smaller.
Everything my body proportion is all the same.
For me specifically, I think I'm a lot shorter than most dwarfs.
So that can be a problem when it comes to trying to reach things.
Yes. I'm very down with the little person lingo.
Personally, I don't like the word midget.
That is a offensive word.
But a lot of people have their own opinions.
But for me, I don't like to be called that.
Being able to drive is like the most
independent feeling because I am so like social.
I can go anywhere and everywhere whenever I want,
which is great. So, to see my friends.
Can you open the gate please?
Marilyn: So we met up at a coffee shop,
I thought it was going to be pretty awkward.
Like at some point, I have a tendency to say the wrong thing.
We kind of just understand each other and it's fine. Like I don't, I haven't had
to censor myself at all. Jonna: No.
Marilyn: But you don't… she doesn't get offended very easily either.
Which is really cool actually.
There's a lot to admire about that. She still shows up to things like no matter what it is.
Jonna: So I've been swimming since I was probably like, actually like two years old.
I love Swimming, swimming is like the best exercise for me personally.
Because it helps with all like my body and it's like freeing.
I love the water. I've always been like an ocean baby basically.
Like my dream was to be like a mermaid.
Not a ballerina, a mermaid.
Marilyn: Bye babe. Jonna: Bye, love you.
Marilyn: Love you too have fun.
Jonna: See you later, bye. Marilyn: Okay, bye.
Jonna: The most probably hurtful comment ever,
was she's a poster child for abortion,
which is really messed up.
A lot of times when I'm in public,
most of the time, little kids will shout out like,
"look at the little person" or "oh my gosh, she's so short".
'Why is she so short?'
If they come and talk to me, I'll just explain
like I was born with a type of dwarfism.
It's not like a disease, you can't catch it.
It's not going to do anything to you.
I just am like you just with shorter limbs, that's it.
I'm the same person as you.
I was bullied probably my entire life.
I love dancing, ever since I was little.
And then when I was about 12, or 13, I stopped because I,
I was told that I was never going to be a dancer,
because of how I look from my teacher.
And so I chose to listen and I stopped dancing.
I turned 21 and I found alcohol.
And it was like this magical thing that helped me be this confident, awesome person.
When I was drinking, I felt like I could do anything,
be anyone, talk to boys, like, do whatever I wanted to do.
It was fun at first and I was being very reckless and unhealthy and getting into a lot of trouble.
I would say that being a dwarf,
was the reason why I drink.
Because I never accepted who I fully am.
And once I did that, it like freed me from everything.
So right now I'm a little nervous because I
have not been at playground for gosh, almost like six months.
I don't know if I've gotten worse or better. I don't know.
I guess we'll find out.
I have to adapt really fast in a small amount of time.
So the moves if I can't do it, I just kind of modify,
see what I can do but I make it work every time.
Nicolas: Yeah, I feel like Jonna is in like a little league of her own.
When you have people like her come into class, they put their own spin on it too.
Everyone has different proportions.
Some people are muscular, some people are taller,
and then some people are shorter and they have like shorter limbs so
the movement will look different so they have to make it in their body to
make it look the same as someone that's a lot taller than them.
Jonna: When I was getting sober I can see who I was while I was dancing
like my passion, how much I loved it.
I was able to express myself without like, saying any words.
When I was at the studio when they film you dance,
they post or like other people were posting.
And I was like, maybe I should like post my progress.
And like all the response was amazing.
So I was like, oh, okay, maybe I am good at this.
And then like, I kind of blew up from there.
I started posting videos of me dancing.
And then like, Chris Brown, posted one and Snoop Dogg posted one.
And I was like, what is happening?
From doing that it helped me again, figure out
how much confidence I have in myself and like, what I can actually do and I could actually do this.
When I started dancing, I started like loving who I am,
loving my body and not giving a f*** about what other people think anymore.
Because my entire life, I've spent so much energy on that
instead of who I am and what I want to do with it.