Like I'm a dwarf, I have dwarfism and I'm smaller than you
but that doesn't mean you need to treat me a specific way
just treat me the way you'd treat anyone else.
My name is Jonathan Novic, I'm 22 years old, I live in New York city
I'm a freelance video editor.
I kept having these negative interactions with different people
and it eventually got to a point where there was
one instance that pushed me over the edge
There was just like a crowd of people around a building, I wasn't really paying much attention
and one of them - a gentlemen in his late teens, maybe early twenties
physically jumped over me
It was at that moment where I realised there is nothing I can do here.
There's absolutely nothing I can do here
I can't yell at them because it'll be funnier for them
I can't chase after them because I can't catch them
I can't report them because they didn't do anything that broke any laws
I just felt powerless, and that's when I started thinking I need to do something.
This camera which is actually known as a button camera
because the lens I'm going to be using is so tiny.
When people stop and take a photo of me
the first question is why..?
It seems that I could very easily be turned into a joke
like hahaha there's a dwarf on the subway, there's a midget over here
To be able to post a video and actually make a dent
a powerful dent in the internet enough for people to see it, feel it and respond
has been nothing more than amazing.
There's an organisation in the United States, called the Little People of America
LPA, the actual Facebook page for the organisation
re-blogged my video and I've been getting a lot of messages
from other little people in different areas, like from Canada
from the UK, from other parts of the United States
saying thank you so much for making this video
this really speaks to what we go through.
These experiences also seem to resonate with a lot of other people
with different lifestyles than just dwarfism
I've been receiveing messages from people who have muscular dystrophy, who have tourettes, who have cerebral palsy
just saying that, you know I really really understand what you go through
and I'm so happy that you were able to show it.
The next time you see someone who is different than you
think about what their day might be like
think about all the events of their life leading up to that point
then think about their day and think about what part of their day do you want to be?