Adheesha Jain: Turning stammering struggles into literary strength

Thirteen-year-old Adheesha Jain has always had things to say. Getting them out was the hard part. Her slight stammer made speaking in class feel like climbing a hill while everyone watched. The slips and pauses drew attention, sometimes unkind. Still, she found another way to be heard.

“I have a slight stammer, which makes it hard to speak in front of my class,” she says. “Sometimes, people laughed at me. But I never gave up.” For most kids, being laughed at for the way they speak might push them to shrink into themselves. For Adheesha, it pushed her toward something else entirely, the written word. “Writing became the place where I could speak without fear.”

That realisation came during an ordinary English lesson. The task was to write a short story. For Adheesha, it was a chance to pour her thoughts and feelings into something that didn’t require her to stand at the front of the room. When her teacher read the piece aloud without revealing the author, she sat in the back, listening. “Everyone listened so closely, and some even looked surprised at the twists in the plot,” she remembers. “Even though I didn’t say the words, people still heard me. That felt truly amazing.”

The journey to confidence wasn’t instant. “It was hard sometimes, especially when I didn’t feel confident,” she admits. “But I reminded myself that I didn’t want to give up on things I love.” With encouragement from family and friends, she kept pushing herself, each small step making her “a little braver.” Even now, she says, she’s still building that courage.

Those quiet victories find their way into her fiction. Her books are filled with characters who begin unsure of themselves but grow into their strength. “I want my readers to feel like they’re not alone,” she says. “I want my books to show that it’s okay to be different, and that your story matters, no matter what.”

She’s also learning to test her courage beyond the page. When she had to speak about her book at school, the nerves hit hard. “I forgot a few words, but I just kept going,” she recalls. The claps and smiles that followed weren’t just polite, they were proof. “It taught me that even if it’s not perfect, I can still be proud of myself. You don’t have to be perfect to be brave.”

If another student, whether they stammer or just feel “different”, asked for her advice, she knows what she’d say. “Being different is actually something really special. It might feel hard sometimes, but it’s part of what makes you, you. Don’t try to hide who you are. Just be yourself. You’ll find people who understand and care about you, and your voice matters more than you think.”

Her belief that imperfection isn’t a barrier to being heard runs deep. “Did you know that 95 per cent of people are scared of public speaking?” she says. “I was scared too, but I kept showing up.”

Looking ahead, she hopes her writing helps others realise they can speak up too, in whatever way feels right for them. “I want people to know that they don’t have to be perfect to be heard,” she says. “If I can make even one person feel more confident or less alone, that’s already a big change. In the end, it’s the effort that matters.”