JOHNNY: So many people stare at me every single day, every time I am in public, and that used to really get to
me. Life after my accident was so much worse than even the physical burns that I had been through.
Now I try to look at everything with a different perspective.
JOHNNY: 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 burnt and I was burnt 95% of my body. My arms, my torso, my legs and
obviously my face, they couldn’t tell.
JOHNNY: This is where the fire happened but it’s a completely different shed now, it was rebuilt.
LEAH: I heard screaming and so I ran outside.
LEAH: That day brings back a lot of different memories. Feelings that are difficult to deal with -
stressful, panic, terrified.
JOHNNY: I didn’t understand until I was older when all of my troubles started when I was 10 and 11.
JOHNNY: In that picture, I'm climbing a tree and I remember what it was like to have fingers
and hold on to stuff.
JOHNNY: I was becoming a teenager and appearance started to matter to me and I started to realise that I
really don’t look normal.
JOHNNY: I just started to really hate what I looked like.
JOHNNY: 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 anymore, where I just stopped eating. And I never realised how
selfish I was acting. Obviously I had a family that cared about me, although I never realised it.
JOHNNY: 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 everyday and seeing something that I hated, I started to see what I could
enhance and see what I could accept. What helped 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 else,
someone else has to say about me.
JOHNNY: This one was really awesome. A lot of people replied about it.
JOHNNY: So many of their comments, they will make me smile a lot. They really make my day awesome.
JOHNNY: I am so excited. I could not wait. This is unreal.
MAN: Looking good Johnny, looking good buddy. JOHNNY: Thanks. I cannot wait to get this started.
MAN: It’s going to be a good time, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
JOHNNY: I have always wanted ears because I wanted to enhance myself.
TRISH: People that have rare severe medical conditions, they don’t really get the help that they need.
TRISH: And do you want nose as well? JOHNNY: Yeah.
TRISH: Okay. JOHNNY: Because it is like a turtle neck.
JOHNNY: Courageous Faces Foundation makes my dreams and passions seem like they are reality.
Things that I have always wanted, they make obtainable.
TRISH: Johnny is doing great today. He is having so much fun. He wants to show people who he is,
and that he is just like everybody else and hopefully this photoshoot he is doing that for him today.
JOHNNY: I absolutely love it. It feels so natural honestly.
JOHNNY: When I realised how confident I could be then I was able to make friends.
GREGORY: I would describe John as someone who is very entertaining, very entertaining and very energetic.
He has got a great energy and I love him.
GRACE: He was very outgoing. He liked to talk to people all the time.
GREGORY: He has definitely made me more confident in myself, because I see him over here doing things that
I have dreamed of doing and he is over here being confident.
JOHNNY: I know a lot of people just call them a burn victim and I was totally a burn victim too.
Somebody who just lets their situation take control over their life. When you are a burn survivor, you are just
surviving but I like to call myself a burn thriver now, because I am actually thriving in my burns.
There are still parts that I feel insecure about but I know that everyone has scars and mine is not more
meaningful than anyone else’s type of scar. Mine is just visible and I am not ashamed about it.
Because 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.