Maree Jenner

Maree Jenner: A young girl said to me one day, she said, “You’ve grown up little,” and her father was like, “Oh!” And I went, “Your daughter’s brilliant.” ‘Cause I have, I’ve grown up, and I am little.

My name’s Maree and I live on the wonderful Central Coast.

I love to travel, but I also like to get out and about and riding my bike.

I’m a disability advocate and I’m an ambassador for International Day of People with Disability.

My big question is, ‘when you look towards the next generation, what gives you hope for the future?’

I’m the only person with short stature in my family.

Going to school, that was hard.

Some of the children at school decided that it was okay to mock and laugh at me. I had to learn early to stand up for myself, and that’s the part of my living with disability.

It’s given me the strength to be an advocate, to speak up and challenge people’s thinking.

Isabella Choate: Something that gives me hope for the future is our younger generations who are proudly claiming their disability.

Ronan Soussa: More representation in media to raise awareness as well.

Santiago Velasquez Hurtado: When I’m walking down the streets and little kids are genuinely curious.

James Parr: Having the next generation advocate for us and with us.

Maree: I love their thinking. Now, I tell them when I apply for a job, “Do you think I wrote, I had short stature or dwarfism?” And they said, “No, it doesn’t matter.”

I do inclusion programs in schools, encouraging young people to be upstanders and allies for one another and to be inclusive in their thinking.

They are the change-makers of tomorrow. They will be the designers and the builders and their thinking is different to the thinking of the past.

That’s what gives me hope.