"Here I come!"
"Whoaaaa!"
"Here I am Dad! Here I am!"
"Yeah, there you are!"
"Whoa!"
"I don't think there is a certain point in anyone's life where they grow up."
"I think that we're growing up all the time and we always will be."
"My name is Jon Novick, I'm 22 years old, and I am a dwarf with Achondroplasia."
"Before I was even born my mother studied genetics in graduate school,"
"specifically she had an interest in Achondroplastic dwarfism that she did a study on."
"Achondroplastic dwarfism is the kind of dwarfism that I have"
"So when I was born she had a lot of extra information and she had a lot of books to help her parent me."
"The definition for dwarfism..."
"is the abnormal underdevelopment of the body characterized predominantly by extreme shortness of stature."
"Now there’s a lot of different kind of dwarfism as I mentioned before, and the most common kind is the kind that I have, which is achondroplasia."
"Achondroplasia is characterized by disproportionately short limbs, a normal-sized torso, large head, and with a depressed nasal bridge-"
"-right here"
"small face and stubby hands, as well as the curvature of the spine."
The term is dwarf or little person. One or the other is totally fine, just not 'midget'
"A lot of times, “midget” is thrown around as “the term” to describe someone who has dwarfism, and not only is that incorrect but it’s incredibly offensive."
"I moved to New York City a year ago, and although I consider it ultimately a good experience, it was made a lot more difficult because of my dwarfism."
"I grew up in a small town and I would have, you know, negative encounters now and then but I had friends and I had family who supported me."
"School wasn’t a nightmare and I was just able to have a pretty average childhood."
"A year ago when I moved to the city, I noticed that there was a lot of people - a lot a lot of people."
"And because of that, I would have a lot of encounters."
"I would have people take pictures of me on the subway. I would have people who would harass me."
And just all these things, all these almost daily occurrences. And it would continue happening, continue happening
"until I got to a point where I was just fed up with it."
"I wanted to stop telling people what happened to me and I wanted to start showing people what happened to me."
"I wanted to show everyone what a day in my life was like."
"I was fortunate enough to be able to use this camera which is actually known as a button camera"
"because the lens I'm using is so tiny that it has a button cover up"
"that I'm going to be slipping through a shirt that will be completely unnoticeable."
"So we are all packed up, camera is all ready and going, I'm gonna turn it on right now."
"It's rolling"
"And we're going to go see what we can capture"
"So let's head out"
Man - "Have you been on TV?"
Jon - "I have not"
Man - "You know who you look like?"
Jon - "Who?"
"Have you ever seen that show, 'Little People Big World'?"
Jon - "Yeah"
Man - "Yeah..."
Man - "You look like the son man."
Jon - "I do?"
Man - "Yeah"
Jon - "Why do you say that?"
"Do you see a lot of little people?"
Man - "Man, I'm from Oklahoma"
Jon - "Oh yeah?"
Jon - "What?"
Jon - "What did you say?"
Jon - "Wow"
Man - "Yeah I hope I didn't offend you."
Jon - "Oh no, it's okay"
Jon - "I appreciate that, no it's fine"
Man - "Yeah..."
Man - "Can I get your picture?"
Jon - "Uh...no"
Woman - "You from one of the show with the little people?"
Jon - "Uh...not that I know of- no I'm not."
Woman (Baby voice) - "Awwww you look like identical as the guy..."
Jon - "I don't want to tell anyone what to do, or how to think, or what to feel."
"But instead what I'll do is I'll ask."
"I'll ask that the next time you see someone who is different from you, think about what their days is like"
"Think about all of the events leading up to that point and think about their day,"
"And think about, what part of their day do you want to be?"