Ask. Teach. Influence.

When I was younger and in primary school I was never invited to sit with people, never picked on sports teams, never invited to, and never had sleep overs. I always felt like an outsider.

I was though…

Born with a rare facial condition: Cranio Frontal Nasal Dysplasia (CFND) that required surgery to reconstruct my entire face at aged 5.

We can’t help the things we are born with, and kids are cruel - They have no filter, we’ve all heard that. But what if they did, what if awareness started younger?

If I had children I’d be making them aware of situations that came up. Someone might be in a wheelchair… but it doesn’t mean you scream ‘’wheelchair!’’ when you see them. The way I see it is that person is riding in the chair, you make it known at a young age that this is normal.

You smile, you wave. You let that human be a human.

If you’ve got nothing nice to say, then you don’t say it. Children are not dumb and they learn from the example you set, you react in fear and your child will soon do the same.

I had a girl the other day screw her whole face up to trying to make sense of what she was looking at and show me what my face looks like to her.

And said ‘’ YOU, YOU LOOK REALLY WEIRD’’, her mother didn’t say anything. It’s a frequent thing, I get stared at by little kids, they ask a question and the parents cannot answer them and they leave.

We can scream ‘’STOP BULLYING’’ but that doesn’t fix things, it will never fix it. It starts with us!

We are the path that leads to a better future. - Influence the younger generation to be more open minded.

- Raise awareness about different peoples struggles, mentally and physically.

- Be a kinder human, small and simple things to inspire others to reach out too.

My biggest word of advice would be that if you don’t know the answer to a question about their difference, you can ask the person your question… and they would be able to answer it. If you don’t know, how could you be more educated?

Ask. Teach. Influence.

Anyway that’s my Thursday

thought, Have a terrific week.

Much love, Olivia.