WESTWOOD, Calif. – Every morning, Nathan Mallipeddi stands in front of the mirror and says his name, time after time, after time.
“For a lot people who stutter, the hardest thing to say is actually their name,” Mallipeddi said.
He began stuttering at the age of four. By the time he started school, he barely spoke.
“When I was a kid, I would have wished anything to not be a person who stutters,” Mallipeddi said. “It was my greatest weakness and my biggest secret.”
One day, his mom suggested he look up famous people who stutter and one name stood out in particular: then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“When I was listening to him a of emotions were building up inside because my experience was so similar,” he recalled.
Fast-forward more than a decade, and Mallipeddi is running The Southern California Stuttering Service, a non-profit that sponsors speech therapy lessons for kids in need. Biden is now running for president, inspiring a whole new generation of young kids.
Zane Aguirre, one of Mallipeddi’s grant recipients, is one of those kids. His mom, Rachel Aguirre, called Biden’s nomination a “game-changer.”
“It’s empowering for me and my son and other people who stutter to see people succeed,” she said. “Joe Biden is now a lot of boys' and girls’ hero.”
Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a neurological disorder that affects roughly 3 million Americans. It involves an involuntary disruption of the rhythm and flow of speech. People who who stutter know what they want to say but have difficulty saying it.
Biden has been open about his issues with stuttering for years. During a televised town hall in February, he discussed how his stutter affected his life.
“Stuttering, when you think about it, it is the only handicap that people still laugh about that [they] still humiliate people about. And they don't even mean to,” Biden said.
During the Democratic National Convention in August, a 13-year-old named Brayden Harrington stole the show as he shared his story of how Biden inspired him to overcome his stutter.
“A few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire,” Brayden said of Biden. “He told me we were members of the same club: We stutter."
Brayden’s speech had a profound effect on Mallipeddi.
“It was pretty crazy watching that,” Mallipeddi said. “I remember at that age I could barely speak in front of a class.”
Mallipeddi now hopes Biden’s visibility will help bring some much needed attention to the issue, and help those struggling to speak find their voice.
“Seeing where Biden is now it really tells people who stutter that the possibilities are endless,” he said.