So many people stare at me every single day,
every time I'm in public, and that used to really get to me.
Like, after my accident,
it was so much worse than even the physical burns
that I'd been through.
Now I try to look at everything with a different perspective.
Why did I even survive?
Why didn't I just die in the fire?
I questioned that all the time.
I was four years old when I was burned,
and I was burned 95% of my body.
My arms, my torso, my legs.
And obviously, my face!
You couldn't tell?
This is where the fire happened.
But it's completely different shed now, it was rebuilt.
I heard screaming, so I ran outside.
That day brings back a lot of different memories.
Feelings that are difficult to deal with.
Stressful, panic, terrified.
I didn't understand until I was older,
when all of my trouble started when I was 10 and 11.
Young boy, you was a tender little boy.
We had to be careful touching you for a long time.
It's so weird, because in that other picture, I'm climbing a tree.
And I remember what it was like to have fingers and hold on to stuff.
I was becoming a teenager and appearance started to matter to me,
and I started to realise that I really don't look normal.
I just started to really hate what I looked like.
I felt like I was genuinely a monster
and I shouldn't have friends,
because everyone was scared of me and I didn't deserve them.
I kept all of this turmoil inside of me for so long.
But it turned into anorexia, where I just didn't even want to take care
of my body any more, where I just stopped eating.
I never realised how selfish I was acting.
Obviously, I had a family that cared about me, but I never realised it.
I realised that confidence is a habit,
it's not a personality trait.
It's something you have to work at.
Instead of looking in the mirror every day and seeing something
that I hated, I started to see what I could enhance
and see what I could accept.
What helps me have more habits of being confident
is adopting fashion and trying to look presentable.
Because if I can feel good about myself,
then I don't really care what someone else has to say about me.
This one was really awesome, a lot of people replied about it.
So many of the comments, though, make me smile a lot,
they really make my day awesome.
Morning!
I'm so excited, I could not wait, this is unreal.
Looking good, Johnny, looking good, buddy. Thanks.
I cannot wait to get this started.
It's going to be a good time, it's going to be a lot of fun.
I've always wanted ears, because I wanted to enhance myself.
People that have rare and severe medical conditions,
they don't really get the help that they need.
And do you button those as well? Yeah. OK.
Cos it's like a turtleneck. Oh, cool.
You look very gangster.
Courageous Faces Foundation makes my dreams and passions seem like
they are reality. Things that I've always wanted, they make attainable.
Johnny's doing great today, he's having so much fun.
He wants to show people who he is
and that he's just like everybody else.
Hopefully this photo shoot is doing that for him today.
I absolutely love it, it feels so natural, honestly.
When I realised how confident I could be,
then I was able to make friends.
I would describe John as someone who's very entertaining.
Very entertaining and very energetic.
He's got a great energy and I love him.
He was very outgoing,
he liked to talk to people all the time.
Hey, OK! Work it, John, work it!
Go, John! Go, John!
He's definitely made me more confident in myself,
because I see him over here doing things that I've dreamed of doing,
and he's over here being confident.
A lot of people just call them a burn victim,
and I was totally a burn victim too.
Somebody who just let their situation
take control over their life.
When you're a burn survivor, you're just surviving.
But I like to call myself a burn thriver now.
Because I'm actually thriving in my burns.
There are still parts that I feel insecure about,
but I know that everyone has scars and mine's not more
or meaningful than anyone else's type of scar.
Mine is just visible and I'm not ashamed about it.
I want to be the person who changes other people's minds,
that they can be comfortable in their own skin if I can be.