I stutter, and that’s okay

Three years ago I was a proofreader at Watson and I was at risk of coming across as a stutterer in an article. Before that, I had hidden my stuttering for years, from friends and strangers as well as from the other Watsons.

A lot has happened in the meantime. At the time, I was still at the beginning of my Applied Languages ​​studies at the ZHAW and successfully completed it this summer. I’ve been an intern at Watson’s news desk since early September.

During these three years I was able to accept my stuttering step by step and accept it more and more. At the beginning of my studies I was often nervous; the fact that the entire first year took place online via teams due to Corona contributed to this. But with each semester it got a little better.

The previous semester was all about oral language instruction, which took me a lot of effort to overcome. I was able to moderate classes and give some presentations and a speech. I became more and more accustomed to speaking in front of an audience.

However, there are still situations where I have to overcome myself: Above all, phone calls can still make you break out in a sweat. On my first day of internship I was going to call a media agency. I was quite nervous beforehand. But while it’s usually much less bad than I previously thought, this time it was really unpleasant. The person I was speaking to didn’t answer my question – I stuttered quite a bit – and when I tried to make it as clear as possible, the person interrupted me with what I thought was an artificially polite goodbye and hung up.

Fortunately, the next calls to the editor went a lot better.

Certain sounds are harder for me than others. Words that start with B are particularly difficult. I’m from Baden. And I can probably pronounce my last name fluently in one of ten situations. Is that bad? Of course not! But tell that to my subconscious.

I no longer hide my stuttering in public. I’m happy that I can confront a wide variety of people with it, whether I feel like it or not.

And I keep being struck by how many people who stutter like me don’t even have it on their radar and seem like they’re in the wrong movie. “The look” always tells me that. No, not the newspaper. Marc Winski, an influencer who also reaches many people outside the stuttering bubble with his humorous posts on TikTok and Instagram, demonstrated ‘the look’ beautifully:

Fortunately, there are influencers who stutter like Marc Winski who provide more visibility and understanding. Personally, they have helped me enormously to accept and come to terms with my stuttering as something normal.

The Association for People who Stutter and their Family Members (VERSTA) has existed in Switzerland since 1978. It currently has approximately 150 members. Everyone involved there does so on a voluntary basis and free of charge. I spoke with Theresa, who recently opened a VERSTA Instagram account and runs it together with another self-influenced person.

The Insta channel has been around since the beginning of this year. Instagram is particularly practical for international networking, says Theresa.

But platforms such as Instagram are also relevant to public perception: there is hardly any knowledge among the population about what stuttering actually is.

Organizations such as the BVSS in Germany or STAMMA (“stamper” is English for stuttering) in the United Kingdom are very active and do a lot for people who stutter and their public perception. When I asked why there was nothing similar in Switzerland, Theresa replied that it mainly had to do with this lack of financial support To do. The above organizations receive public money and can achieve a lot with it – VERSTA in Switzerland, on the other hand, currently receives no such support.

As the only organization that stands up for the interests of people who stutter in German-speaking Switzerland, VERSTA has already applied for funding from the Federal Social Insurance Agency (BSV) – She replied that financing is not possible at this time. Furthermore, you can only submit an application once every four years. Even organizations that stand up for the interests of people with disabilities do not seem to have people who stutter and their concerns on their radar.

According to Theresa, there is currently little networking among people who stutter in Switzerland. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of the adult population stutters, and in children this figure is as high as 4 to 5 percent. There are also only a few speech therapists who specialize in stuttering.

Some in the Swiss community are very involved, but more volunteers are needed. VERSTA wants to network and provide a platform for involved people.

Things look very different abroad.

One of the most internationally known stuttering influencers is the Dutch Willemijn Bolks. On her Instagram account ‘juststutter’ she shares her own comic strips in which she humorously shares typical experiences from her life as a stutterer.

I was allowed to interview Willemijn.

Your art has helped many people who stutter like me. Has your life improved as a result?
Willemijn Bolks: Yes absolutely. And thank you, I’m very happy to hear that! I drew my first comic about stuttering in 2019 when I experienced something frustrating: I wanted to compliment someone, but I stuttered and the person turned away from me. So I decided to express my frustration by drawing what was happening to me. I focused on facing my fear; it was so strong that I did it every day for a few weeks. Since then I have drawn more than 140 comics about stuttering.

And why do you share your comics on social media?
As I shared the comics, I realized that many had the same fears and experiences. This gave me the opportunity to meet other people who stutter and made it easier to talk to those close to me about stuttering.

How has your relationship with stuttering specifically changed since you shared your comics with the public?
I am now regularly confronted with situations that I used to fear. There is a lot of positivity in my life thanks to my stuttering, comics and everyone who supports them. I am very grateful for that!

You are now very well known in the stuttering community. Do you have plans, projects or visions about working with other people who stutter?
There were so many projects this year, it was very exciting. For example, I had a lot of fun at a youth exchange for people who stutter, where I gave workshops. I also attended three camps for children who stutter, where I developed their ideas to educate the world about stuttering. This weekend the Stotter Festival will take place in the Netherlands, where people who stutter can meet each other and attend workshops. A second issue of the magazine ‘Dysfluent’ will also be published, published by Conor Foran in collaboration with various stuttering artists.

These are all projects within the stuttering community. Do you also plan projects for non-stutterers?
I hope future projects will reach even more people. For example, by working with people with other disabilities and finding ways to incorporate stuttering into topics and projects that interest the general public.

In Switzerland there is no public funding for stuttering organizations. There are also few volunteers. Do you have any advice for us?
The Dutch stuttering community has grown considerably in recent years, while it was previously quite small. I think one of the reasons for this is a handful of passionate members who follow events all over the internet. This has helped me and many of my friends find community.

But events cost money, how did you manage that?
The events don’t have to be big or expensive, the most important thing is that there is an opportunity to meet other people who stutter. Just talking to someone else who stutters opened up a new world that I immediately wanted to know more about. Hearing the stories of others made me realize that I am not alone in my experiences and that together we can do something to positively change the world around us.

What do you think are the most important areas where society needs to improve the treatment of people who stutter?
The biggest problem is that society expects those of us who stutter to “overcome” our stuttering. We are blamed for our stuttering. But instead of asking ourselves how we can “overcome” stuttering – a disability – we should ask ourselves: how can we make room for stuttering?