Charlie and Lewis Smith

Charlie: Hi I’m Charlie, and I’m from Adelaide, South Australia, from the Barossa Valley.

Lewis: Hi I’m Lewis, I’m 22 years old. I’m from Adelaide in the Barossa Valley.

Charlie: We are thrilled to be ambassadors for International Day of People with Disability.

Lewis: I have a real passion for filmmaking. We study it through an inclusive filmmaking program.

Charlie: I also am very passionate about filmmaking and writing.

Lewis: And we’re about to work on a TV show. I can’t mention too much, but it’s gonna be an exciting time.

Charlie: I live with a mild intellectual disability. Some of the struggles I have are mainly like reading and writing. Sometimes I mispronounce things or misspell things and in school that was really difficult and really challenging.

Lewis: I struggled in primary school with maths, especially. Especially handling money. But reading and writing as well was a real struggle.

The main reason why I wanted to become an ambassador is to not only inspire people that live with a invisible disability, but to also inspire many young people around the nation. See the great things that we are doing and to go well if he can do it, I can too.

Charlie: Your disability isn’t a weakness. It’s a strength.

Lewis: It’s really about embracing what you’re good at, in a way. Especially from a younger age. As a child, we had very imaginative brains and that’s really fed into what we’re trying to progress to do now in filmmaking, which is like working behind the camera, writing scripts. We sort of shut it down in high school, I’ll admit.

Charlie: I think we were more like fearful to say like this is what we wanna do. Having a brother and a best friend beside you can really help in these situations.

Bus Stop Films, the inclusive filmmaking course that we’re a part of, it means to me that I am with likeminded people.

Lewis: Being around the same community can really spark your imaginative creativity. It makes you feel like a part of the family.