Sorry for butting in on this post. I’m a 31M who spent his first 28 years of life deeply covert and ashamed, feeling so isolated, and until recently I had no idea how much harder it can be for someone to feel like a minority within a minority, whether it’s being a woman, POC, LGBT person within the stuttering community. I’m really sorry you’ve been made to feel that way <3 I know you’ve asked specially for views from fellow women PWS, but if I may ask, have you attended in person stuttering conferences at all? The reason I ask is because I spent most of my life literally NEVER meeting a single PWS until I actually reached out and sought this beautifully interconnected community of ours. It’s hard enough to meet PWS irl, let alone women or other minority PWS who are even more rare when compared to the general fluent population. The thing is, when you attend these irl events you realise that there’s actually SO MANY inspiring women PWS! They may be super rare in gross human population numbers, but that means nothing when you’re in a room with literally HUNDREDS of female PWS who truly GET your lived experience and are willing to share and help and listen. I attended my first stuttering conference in the UK (where I live) in 2022 and being surrounded by a hundred PWS was life changing. I felt so “normal”, there were talks about intersectional disability, challenges faced by women who stutter, or POC or LGBT persons, and so many other unique facets of the stuttered experience. It was such an incredible experience that last year I flew to the US to attend the NSA conference in Fort Lauderdale where there was close to a thousand PWS. Like bruuuuh, it was freakin AMAZING. And with so many PWS, you no longer see the gender disparity unless you really start counting. You wouldn’t even realise that women PWS are only a quarter of the PWS. Also in the UK there’s women-only stammering on line support groups too which feels like such a great idea to create a safe and supportive space. Similar spaces exist for LGBT pws too iirc. So I’d strongly suggest reaching out to the stuttering community in your country and start meeting PWS IRL. When you meet one PWS irl, you’ll find yourself meeting more and more and life just starts feeling so much more beautiful. Best of luck and maybe we’ll even bump into each other at the next NSA conference :D