The hardest thing about being a dwarf¹ is dealing² with people's reactions. Sometimes people seem to think I'm invisible and they'll do stuff like cut in front of me in a line as if I'm not even there. And one time I was with about five of my dwarf friends and this woman wanted to take our picture. We said no, but she kept asking. It was like she thought we were street performers or something.

My average size friends will stick up for me like when there's a new kid at school who's making fun of me. If I'm with my dwarf friends mostly we just ignore the stares and the teasing. Sometimes we'll stare back—hard—and that usually embarrasses the person so much that the staring stops.

Except for rude people I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. So I don't mind some questions. Usually people want to know what to call a person with my condition. I tell them it's OK to refer to people like me as dwarfs³ or little people. Just don't call us midgets—it's an outdated⁴ term that offends us. I don't mind talking about dwarfism because that makes people see I'm a person just like them.

My T-shirt kind of does the same thing. It shows people the real me, a kid with a sense of humor. And maybe that's the real trick showing others that I'm just like them. I play sports and video games, I go to school and I hang out with my friends. I'm just shorter. I mean no one is exactly the same. We're all different in some way, so we should just accept each other's differences. And anyway I'm proud of who I am. Why would I want to change?(finished)

（续）身为矮人最难的事就是应对人们的一些反应。有时人们好像对我视而不见，在我面前显示他们的本领——比如站成一排挡住我的去路，好像我根本不在那儿。甚至有一次我和五个矮人朋友在一起时，有个女人还想给我们拍照！她不顾我们的反对一直要求，好像把我们当成了街头表演者之类的人了！

当学校里有新生作弄我的时候，我那些身高正常的朋友都会保护我。如果和矮人朋友在一起，我们大部分时候都不理会别人的注视和嘲弄。有时我们也会回以严厉的目光，这常常令那个人很尴尬而停止注视。

我不想弄得别人不愉快，除非他们表现得很粗鲁无礼，所以我并不介意人们提一些问题。通常人们想知道该怎么称呼像我这样的人，我就告诉他们叫我们矮子或小矮人都没关系，但是别叫侏儒，那可是个令我们恼怒的过时词汇。我也不介意谈论侏儒症，因为那会让人们明白我和他们一样也是人。

我的T恤衫也就有这方面的意思：它向人们展示真正的我——一个有幽默感的孩子。也许这才是我的真实用意：告诉人们我和他们没什么两样。我不仅运动、玩电子游戏、上学，还和朋友们一起闲逛。我只是矮了一点，我是说没有人同别人一模一样，人和人之间总有某些方面是不同的，所以我们应该接受彼此的不同之处。不管怎么样，我为自己感到自豪。既然这样，为什么还想着改变呢？