"It Won't Stop You"

Aussie Billionaire Has Message For Kids Who Stutter

By Lucy Dean

John Andrew Henry Forrest, nicknamed Twiggy, is an Australian businessman. He is best known as the former CEO of Fortescue Metals Group, with other interests in the mining industry, cattle stations, and aquaculture (the rearing of aquatic animals or the cultivation of aquatic plants for food). With an assessed net worth of $23 billion (according to the Financial Review 2020 Rich List), Forrest was ranked as the second richest Australian.

Emily Blunt, Joe Biden, Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis and Aussie billionaire, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, all have one thing in common: they grew up with speech disorders or stutters.

In an interview to mark International Stuttering Awareness Day on 22 October, Forrest said his stutter is just part of his personality.

"You'll either grow out of it or it will grow with you but it won't stop you," Forrest told the Australian Speak Easy Association (ASEA).

"What I'd say to every kid and adult out there: 'it's part of your beautiful personality, it's part of who you are'. You can live full, rich and happy lives."

The campaign is to fight stigma around speech disorders, with ASEA president Vikesh Anand saying the condition is often misunderstood.

Forrest said he first became aware of his stutter around year three or four, but by 10 years old, he knew he “just had to get out of this somehow”.

"The more important the words were, the less I could say them,” he said. “It didn’t matter what the words were. At first I thought it was anything beginning with ‘w’ and then it was anything beginning with ‘m’... I just found if I really had to say something, I couldn’t say it.”

"My father said that he had a stutter as a kid and he said he got over it and he said 'you will too'."

However, he tackled his speech disorder through a “crash or crash-through” mentality, which saw him using a two-way radio as part of his schooling and even joining his school’s debating team.

"I was really pleased that my friends around me said 'Yeah look, have a go Twiggy, what's the worst that could happen? You'll stutter?'" he said.

"I knew that when I put my hand up to join the house debating team that people would be swinging off the rafters to see this kid with a stutter have to debate." He described the debates as “gladiatorial battles” at his school, but he just focused on practicing.

He said it was “one of the most terrifying things” he’s ever done, but it took the worst out of his stutter.

However, that doesn’t mean he lives without a stutter: Forrest said he still stutters today.

But, he said, the stutter gives him some time to think.

Article originally published by Yahoo Finance on October 22, 2020
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/andrew-forrest-opens-up-about-his-stutter-211144888.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=ma

From the 2021 Winter Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Byron Pitts

Byron Pitts has brought much attention to stuttering with his memoir, Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges, released in September, 2009. The book not only details his speech difficulties, but also his illiteracy until age 12 and his unstable family life. Pitts overcame the odds to become the chief national correspondent with ABC News.

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.