Hi! I’m a 30 year old woman with a rangey stutter that can move between light and severe on the same day. I’ve spent the last many years of my life in customer facing jobs where I speak to people dozens of times a shift. Sometimes it’s excruciating but most of the time I enjoy the person to person interaction. Most of all, I refuse to do a job that hides me and my voice away. My two biggest pieces of advice. Slowly start believing your words have value and you deserve the space to say them. I’ve been taught that my whole life by family, excellent teachers, etc, and it has worked. I’m a stubborn bitch when someone gets in my way and usually results in me saying, “excuse me I was speaking, please let me finish.” (Weirdly when I’m mad I don’t stutter.) But also man, you’ve gotta find some friends. Try to look for friends through your hobbies! My friends are my saving grace. On days when people are just excruciatingly awful to me, I can cry to them and not have to just pretend like everything is okay. They value me, they love me, and they don’t care that they have to wait a long ass time sometimes for me to talk. You Have value. You’re young, now is the perfect time to start claiming it. Stuttering is an issue everyone else has with you, it’s not an issue you have, it’s just the way you speak. Sometimes I like to consider it a strong foreign accent.