Meet Daniele Rossi.

You cannot put this cartooning Canadian in a box. He is an international advocate, accomplished creative and his book and podcast Stuttering Is Cool and the swag (buttons, shorts and more) have changed lives and opened minds around the world to understand stuttering in a new light.

Daniele has the amazing ability to weave together his lived experience, the stories of other people who stutter and professionals input in a creative, cohesive and cogent manner.

If we met you in your twenties, earlier on in your journey of acceptance and transcending stuttering, what were you like?

Daniele said, “Saying that I stuttered would’ve been a source of shame… I thought that it was my fault that I was still stuttering because I was lazy or impatient.” 

“There is often negative feedback you get from stuttering openly or speaking in front of a class… there is a fear.” 

How did you get from the shame and “survival mode” mentality to recording and releasing your own podcast?

“In the beginning, I was editing out my stutter. I would rerecord until I got it “clean,” and it took me 3 hours for each episode. This might be egotistic of me, but I thought to myself, if I am ever gonna be interviewed on radio, I can’t ask them to rerecord or edit out my stutter! I gotta do better than this.” 

Daniele told how there was one episode in his art podcast when he decided to openly talk about his stutter, and how he feels about it. Then he asked himself “are there any podcasts out there that talk about stuttering?” 

“When I heard other people say that stuttering is not my fault, I realized that I really needed that. It was so cool to hear other people stutter.” 

It was an act of courage for Daniele to bravely jump in and record a podcast even with a stutter. 

“The point of my podcast is for people to hear me stutter on the air so to speak. When we hear each other stutter, we realize we are not alone.”

Daniele did not start the stuttering podcast from a place of trying to tackle the stutter to get on with life, but he took a step into the unknown to be creative first and followed his passion. Then when he followed his passion, his desire to go further pushed him to begin the stuttering podcast. 

This is so powerful because some people put life on hold in times of struggle, when we should find ways to persevere through it one step at a time. 

“Status quo is not good enough”

The status quo leads to all these emotions and feelings that are hidden underneath the iceberg. 

“It’s time for a status quo change!”

Daniele shared that many cartoon characters with a stutter out there are drawn out to be anxious and worried all the time, but he wanted to change the status quo. 

The misperception of people who stutter is that they have anxiety. 

Daniele’s book shows the variability of stuttering. No two people stutter the same. 

Follow Daniele Rossi on Instagram and Twitter

Visit www.stutteringiscool.com

and see @jwcsc on Instagram and Twitter