Powerful People Who Stutter

In honor of International Stuttering Awareness Day, I wanted to share some really awesome people that I recently learned about who stutter. A simple google search on “influential people who stutter” will state the obvious celebrities, like Marilyn Monroe and James Earl Jones (if you didn’t know that, feel free to google away!). These people on my list are a bit different because they are currently hot in the news, and also just disclosed that they stutter (just like little ol’ me!). On the list, we have….

1. Nikolas Backstrom

2. Ben Jealous

3. Leana Wen

You may recognize a few of these names, and you may not. What’s cool about these people is they all do a ton of public speaking. And for people who stutter, public speaking is almost always a high feared situation, if not the highest one could be in!

So, my first fellow is:

Image Source 

Nikolas Backstrom. He is a professional hockey player for the Washington Capitals (who just won the Stanley Cup!). He is a very talented player that, in my opinion, often gets overshadowed by his counterpart, Alex Ovechkin. My colleague sent me this article about him that discusses his childhood and his stutter. In the article, Backstrom says;

“Sometimes I want to say one thing, and I know I can say it, but sometimes I start to stutter, so I have to redo the phrase,”

At one public speaking event, Backstrom

“fumbled a word, adding the last syllable after a pause. It became something of a meme with friends good-naturedly ribbing him over it.”

For me, and I’m assuming almost everyone who stutters, having a public speech televised and seen by million of others is an absolute nightmare. Luckily, Backstrom doesn’t take himself too seriously and is able to take the light-hearted jokes that came from that speech. After all, life’s too short to be taken so seriously, right?

My second person who stutters is:

Image source

Ben Jealous. You may be familiar with him if you’re in the DMV area since he’s currently campaigning against Larry Hogan, the current Governor of MD. This article discusses his journey with stuttering during the campaign. Ben Jealous has open stuttered several times, one of which resulted in a smear campaign video created by Hogan’s team, mimicking his silent blocks. I admire Jealous for taking the sh*t and facing the voters with a brave face. In response to the video, Jealous said;

“[it was] no different than anything that I’ve dealt with my entire life. I didn’t sweat it.”

Jealous has also opened up and spoken about his stutter to little kids. I applaud this act because kids who stutter need to see role models who also stutter to understand that their stutter shouldn’t get in the way of their dreams. One of the main reasons I started this blog was to inspire others to be brave and show your insecurities, and Ben Jealous is doing just that!

My last role model who stutters is:

Image source

Leana Wen, the new President of Planned Parenthood. During a Ted Talk in 2014, she disclosed that she stuttered. Disclosing to an audience of that size, and on film, is a huge success! This article discusses how she:

“was performing mental somersaults to skirt around words she couldn’t pronounce.”

“avoided saying her own name”

After starting Avoidance Reduction Therapy with Vivian Siskin (where I currently am!), she became more outspoken, stopped avoiding speaking situations, and publicized her stutter. What an awesome boss lady!

“Each person that I stuttered to became a success, because it meant that I finally got to say what I wanted to say”

You go girl!!

 I hope this was informative to those who do and do not stutter. Have a great rest of your week! xoxo 

To subscribe to my blog, click here!