A SOCIAL media savvy schoolboy has appeared in an award-winning short film about accepting stammering.
Elliott Hall, aged 11, from Malmesbury, was invited to walk down the red carpet in Leicester Square last Tuesday, March 21 after he starred in a short YouTube film called Me & My Stammer.
The film won the People’s Choice Award at The Smiley Charity Film Awards.
Elliott lives with mum Natalie Carver and attends Lea & Garsdon Primary School near Malmesbury, has had a stammer since he was five.
He started a TikTok account called @the_stammer_kid to talk about openly and honestly about the condition and to reach out to other children.
These videos were picked up by UK charity Action for Stammering Children, which invited Elliott to audition for its film.
Action for Stammering Children provides advice and support for young people with stammers and their families and campaigns for change.
The film was shot in the summer on one of the hottest days of the year.
Mum Natalie said it was a very long and tiring day but applauded director Simon Matthews' patience.
The three-minute film on YouTube is a story about friendship and learning to love differences.
Former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Ed Balls also features and talks about his own experiences of having a stammer in the public eye.
Natalie said the film has been amazing for Elliott’s confidence.
She said: "There is a tendency with children with stammers or any disability to be identified as purely their disability, and to forget about all the other factors that make them unique such as their humour, ambition and success.
"This film sends out the important message that it is okay to be different and to embrace what makes you unique.
"We were over the moon when we found that the film had won the People's Choice Award. Elliott proudly took it into school the next day to show all his friends and teachers."
A spokesperson for Action for Stammering Children said: "We have been overwhelmed at the reception to this short film both from those within the stammering community and also the general public.
"Winning the People’s Choice Award at the Smiley Charity Film Awards was particularly meaningful to us because we really wanted to engage the public in our message and raise the profile around childhood stammering.
"Elliott was a natural when it came to the post-award live interview."
The film was discussed recently on Good Morning Britain.
Natalie says that Elliott wants to carry on spreading awareness through TikTok and has been invited to talk at other schools in the area.
Elliott has high hopes for the future and said: "My aim for my life is to be a BBC radio presenter because then, apart from Ed Balls, I’d be a good main character in the radioing scene and help children support their goals and embrace their dysfluency."
Watch Me & My Stammer at bit.ly/3TNMobE
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