just be yourself because there's no one
in the world that can be a better you
than you and if you try to be the cool
kid from class you'll end up being very
boring and doing plumbing for someone
that you don't really want to do funny
for um and uh yeah it's just be be
yourself embrace your quirks being being
weird is a is is is is is a wonderful
thing
that's one um this is the second award
that i've ever got in america so that's
quite nice
um
i didn't i didn't actually know i was
getting an award tonight um because i
didn't expect one i i was i was coming
here to um support the calls i got an
email from emily about three months ago
telling me about the thing and i said of
course i'll turn up um so turning up
today and saying you're getting an award
is um
pretty wild but yeah um i um
i i was a very very very weird child
very weird child um and i had uh i had a
port weinstein birthmark on my face that
where i got lasered off when i was very
young and one day they've got to put the
anesthetic on and then ever since then i
had a stutter and i also had very very
big blue nhs glasses nhs is the national
health service one day i hope you'll
have the same um
just saying
and um
i lacked lacked an eardrum on one side
of my face so to uh one side of my ear
so um stuttering was actually the least
of my problems when i went to school uh
but it was still it was still quite a um
it's still still quite uh a difficult
thing and the thing that i found uh most
difficult about it was knowing what to
say but not really being able to express
it in the the right way um so i i did
different
speech therapies and stuff which wasn't
very successful um i had uh homeopathy
which is like herbs and where
you're drinking and drinking
it's all right
but uh i got i got heavily into music
at a young age and got very very into
rap music um eminem was the first first
album that my dad bought me i remember
my uncle jim um
i told my dad that eminem was the next
bob dylan when i was uh
say what you want it's pretty pretty
pretty similar but um it's all just all
storytelling so my dad bought me uh the
marshmallows lp when i was nine years
old not knowing what was on it um
and let me listen to it and i learned
every word of it back to front by the
age i was 10 and he wraps very fast and
very melodically and very percussively
and um it helped me get rid of the
stutter and then from there i just
kind of carried on did some music
but it's uh
i i i think i think the one the one
thing i wanted to convey in my speech
today for
um not so much the adults here because i
feel like the adults are fine you're all
you're all sorted everyone has got a lot
of money and everyone's chilling but
more the um
more the kids that are that i hear that
are going through the therapy and i i i
want to stress the point that it's not
stuttering is not is not a thing you
have to be worried about at all and even
if you have quirks and weirdness you
shouldn't be worried about that i think
the my the people that i went to school
with that were the most normal and were
the coolest when we grew up like i was
telling emily earlier that uh one of the
cool kids from school now does my
plumbing so that's
that's a fact that's a fact so um
being um
[Laughter]
[Applause]
uh
uh my my thing that i wanted to stress
most tonight is not it's not it's not
necessarily just to shed light on
stuttering or make it or make it a a
thing is just um
um stress to kids in in in general is to
just be yourself because there's no one
in the world that can be a better you
than you and if you try to be the cool
kid from class you'll end up being very
boring and doing plumbing for someone
that you don't really want to do
plumbing for um and uh yeah it's just be
be yourself embrace your quirks being
being weird is a is is is is is a
wonderful thing
and uh it has led for so many creative
people and not even just creative people
like you you own a football team
no that's pretty cool
but i think you know just um
i'm not very good at speeches i don't do
a lot of speeches but i i think
the one thing i want to say is is is be
yourself embrace your quirks
embrace your weirdness and from a um
from a stuttering point of view don't
don't treat it as an issue you know work
work through it
and get the treatment that you you want
to get but don't don't ever treat it as
an issue and don't see it as a um a
plight on your life and uh carry on
pushing forward and
i did all right you can do it right as
well emily did all right thank you
[Music]
so
[Music]
you