luckily I grew up in a very educated community. You know,
30 minutes away from MIT, Harvard, you know, all of the Ivy Leagues in Boston.
and I think that's, that speaks a lot to
kids and their value, have value system, but their manners and so forth.
>> Sure.
>> So, I don't remember
getting teased too much. I'm sure I did, and how
much of that I have sort of put under the surface.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And forgotten about but I, I don't, I have a tougher time even
today when I'm in an inner city environment where my the people surrounding
me don't have the same etiquette, and don't have the same education, the same
exposure. And that's really where I struggle more than where I grew up in
a suburb of Boston.
>> well, to get a bit more of that, sort of, educated thought and
idea I want you to tell us you know, as a medical condition of,
of dwarfism, what is, what do you know is the cause of shorter
stature and, in particular, in your case what is the what is the cause of this.
>> Well remember there are over 200 different types of dwarfism.
Achondroplasia being the most common. So if you were to
meet another little person in your life, most likely they'll have
a Achondroplasia, so I can only really speak to Achondroplasia.
it is a dominant gene. It is also a mutation. So
what that means is an individual can have achondroplasia for
two reasons. One, would be their parents have it and it's
been inherited, as it was with my children. The other would
be it's a genetic mutation which is a complete unexplained event.
Which is what it was for me.
>> Sure.
>> Yeah.
>> Are you familiar with the gene that
is actually mutated in most cases of Achondroplasia?
>> The FR?
>> The FGFR3 Gene.
>> That's it. That's what I am.
>> Okay.
>> There's a reason I don't teach science.
I'm an English and drama teacher and Spanish teacher.
>> LAUGH.
>> Not a science teacher. So yes very familiar I,
I don't spend a whole lot of time conversing about it.
>> Sure.
>> what is really,
really cool is that when the gene was discovered in 1994.
>> Mm-hm.
>> In 1992, the National Convention was in San Francisco, I
was eight months pregnant. We had both my in laws there
as well as my parents. And when we have a national
convention that Little People of America puts on, a gaggle of healthcare
providers fly in that have specialized or have an interest in dwarfism. And so,
there'll be no less than 15 or 20 geneticists from around the country, sometimes
we even have international geneticists. And we
all volunteered ourselves for blood draw, when
I was eight months pregnant. And they sent me home with a vile for umbilical
blood, that I was, when I was going to give birth
a month later. So that they could get umbi, umbilical cord blood.
So I like to say we had a little bit of something
that led to what the discovery of the gene two years later.
>> Are there any advantages to having a slightly shorter structure in general.
>> this is a very common question, and I always say to
myself I've got to write it down, because I never, you know
am fully prepared but, in this instance I, I did think about it some. let's
start with the disadvantages because it, that's a shorter list. The
grocery store is horrible. And I haven't quite figured out the best time to
go. If I were not little, the best time to
go clearly would be 6:30 or 7 in the morning
when I'm awake because it's not crowded. But it's a
very bad time for me to go when it's not
crowded, because there aren't people in the aisles to turn to
and say can you hand me that jar up there. So
I think the compromise is more like 10 AM, you know
which fortunately because I don't work full time I can do
that and I can always pretty much count on waiting no
more than two or three minutes for somebody to show up
in the aisle. I'm not going to go to customer service every
time I need help. You get very savvy at flirting with people
[LAUGH]
>> to get what you need. So I will strike up a conversation instantly with the
main motivation being that I need that can
of tomatoes at the top of the counter.
other disadvantages it, it really depends. it's
hard to go into communities that are less
educated and less mannered because we are
so comfortable in, in our community which, granted,
has gotten to know us on so many different levels over the last 20 years. My
husband and I both are, both our careers, myself as a substitute teacher and he
as a an IT guy for small businesses in our immediate area, we're very well
known. only because people don't forget us. You
know, it's not a comment on our personality,
however, I've been told that we kind of
have magnanimous personalities as well. so we get
really comfortable in our environment and then when
we step out to a different environment and
the reaction is totally inappropriate. It's, it's, it's
a slap in the face. It's a reminder.
>> Can you, I mean if you're comfortable, can you
give us an example of a negative reaction that you experienced.
>> Actually I can have, I can give you
two. And, and, and they're a little bit different.
one of them was pure ignorance. There's nothing more
upsetting to me than to be in an environment
where it's the adults that are grabbing the children
and saying look at the midget. Come here, come here
Franky, look at the midget. I cannot believe that
in this day of age that's still happening, but when
I go into inner city environments, into grocery stores.
You know, grocery stores are really harsh places for me
to be. Not only because of the physical thing but
you're trapped. You know, you're in a grocery store line,
and you can't go anywhere, and you've got
kids with their fingers right five feet away
from you. And you're trapped. So that is
definitely you know, hard. The other example of
ignorance was an educated ignorance if I dare say. The five of us were on our
bikes in San Francisco by the Palace of
Fine Arts. We have been riding our bikes around.
And we rode in front of a tour bus, from, tourists from another country. We
can pretty much assure you that when we go by a tour bus of, a group of tourists
from other countries, those video cameras are trained
on us like snipers. And my husband has gotten
to the point, he's a very, very patient man. But he will walk right up to the
camera and say, you will delete that picture. He gets very upset.
>> I imagine.
>> Imagine having 50 of them on your
family. You feel like there are snipers on you.
>> Let's go back to some of the, some of, some of the advantages.
>> Oh yeah. Ha!
[LAUGH]
>> Cause that's a longer list. It really is. advantages. Let's
see. Well, here's a hybrid. Why don't we do the hybrid first.
>> Okay.
>> The spotlight is always on.
>> Fair enough.
>> So you can be entertaining, and the life
of the party. And everyone wants to talk to you.
>> You can get a a a special spot on Tales From The Genome.
>> People remember me, that's kind of the spotlight too,
but if I want to jog somebody's memory over the phone, and I'll
say, hey this is Jenny Foos, your little customer. Oh yes, how are you.
[LAUGH]
>> So I get the information quicker.
>> It's an identifier.
>> Yeah.
when I get tickets to a show the tickets, I
can say I need good tickets and I get good tickets.
>> Right.
>> so that's an advantage. we went camping recently, and I was able to stand
up in my tent, and change my clothes,
where as the average sized friends could not.
>> I definitely encountered that problem before.
>> Yeah.
>> anything what about airplanes.
>> Oh yes, airplane travel is, I would argue more comfortable
for me, but the difference is, is that my feet are dangling.
Look at right now and yours are not. So mine are going
to maybe go to sleep. But, when I've gone on a long
flight, if there happens to be an empty
seat next to mine, I can actually lay down.
[LAUGH]
>> The flight attendants don't like it much, but I can.