“It doesn’t define you”: US President Joe Biden encourages stuttering girls

United States
“It doesn’t define you, you can be anything you want”: Biden encourages stuttering girls

It’s a moment Jessica Nigrelli and her daughter Avery will never forget. After President Joe Biden spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts on his way back to the airport, the Nigrelli family waved to him and his motorcade passing by. The cars came to a stop and Biden climbed out of one of the vehicles. As he approached the family, 9-year-old Avery spoke to him.

“Mr. President, I stutter just like you,” she said to Biden. Avery’s mother, Jessica Nigrelli, told Boston.com that Biden turned all of his attention to Avery for the next ten minutes. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes as he talked about his own stutter.

“It doesn’t define you, you can be anything you want”

“He said, ‘My mother told me that I stutter because my brain moves faster than my mouth,'” said Jessica Nigrelli. He also said: “It doesn’t define you, you can be anything you want.” Avery, could one day become president.

Biden told her about the tricks he uses when “the words get stuck” and about the film “The King’s Speech”, which tells the story of King George VI. narrated who works with a speech therapist to help overcome his stutter.

Biden marks himself breathing pauses in his speeches to avoid his stuttering

“I promise if you just stick with it it will go away, okay?” Biden said to the nine year old, advising her to work hard on her stutter. He also offered to send her a copy of one of his speeches, which he had made notes of where to brake and breathe.

Avery’s uncle, Rufus Gifford, who was deputy campaign manager for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and is currently awaiting confirmation as chief of protocol at the US State Department, posted a video of the meeting between Biden and his niece on Twitter.

“Talking to him made me much more self-confident”

“My wonderful niece and goddaughter Avery has struggled with a stutter for much of her life. She has just been told by a man who knows that she can be anything in this world,” said Gifford in his twitter post. “A day she will never forget,” he added. “Thank you sir.”

Nine-year-old Avery also thanked Biden in the video hugging him. The US President then invited her to come and see him in the White House to meet him in the Oval Office.

For Avery, the unexpected encounter with the US President was a big surprise: “When he got out of his motorcade, I was so surprised and I was so happy that I met him,” she told Boston.com. “And talking about his stuttering was really good for me. Because when I stutter, I’m very embarrassed. But talking to him has made me a lot more confident about stuttering.”

sources: “CNN”, “Boston.com”

This article originally appeared on stern.de.