Short in stature but big in heart 🎸❤️ | Heywire

"I had to run into a dollar-store to flee a woman trying to photograph me." Chloe talks about her challenges of living with Dwarfism and realising the power of being different.

What do you notice when you look at me?

Is it my short legs? My short arms? My slightly bigger head?

Or is it my smile? My eyes? My laugh?

My entire life has been based around first meetings.

I've been greeted with smiles and hellos, but also with stares, snickers, and unwanted photos.

A little over two years ago I had to run into a dollar store to flee a woman trying to photograph me, laughing, snickering, objectifying.

As a 14-year-old this should never have been my reality.

"Midget" — that one word makes my skin crawl — hurled at me out of passing cars, muttered on the street.

It's hard to love yourself when all you can focus on is the teasing, the bullying, the objectifying.

I can't change my body to please others. I was born this way, but some people just can't accept that.

I remember the day I realised there was a power in being different, a power in loving yourself for who you are.

I was busking for the first time. I was greeted with smiles, people singing along and the occasional coinage!

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For once, I wasn't stared at for being different. I was looked at for my musicianship. I had never been so happy.

Family, friends, and music are the foundations of my life.

These are the things that pick me up off the ground when I fall.

Finding people that love you, not having a care in the world that you have a disability, finding people who help you love yourself, now that's beautiful.

I know there's nothing in this world I can't do, except maybe reach the top shelf, but that's what climbing's for.

In short, I may be short in stature but I'm big in heart and that makes life all the more special.

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