Photo: Owen and Jessica Harrington
Brayden Harrington won’t let anything hold him back from achieving his dreams — including his speech impediment.
The 14-year-old author and orator, who spoke at President Joe Biden’s inauguration and at the Democratic National Convention conference in 2020, suffers from a speech impediment and stutter. Though his impediments used to undermine his confidence, his feelings changed once he met theformer vice presidenton the campaign trail in February 2020.
“It was like a whole new door opened,” Harrington tells PEOPLE of meeting Biden. “Because I never really felt like I had somebody there for me that had a stutter, who knew what I was going through. And it was really nice to see him. It felt like he paused everything. And then he started talking to me and complimenting me. And then we talked about a lot of tips he used.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Andrew Harnik/AP/Shutterstock
After his meeting with Biden, Harrington had the privilege of speaking at the Democratic National Convention. He says he prepared for the moment with a speechwriter, who helped him to fine-tune his message.
“I was pretty nervous. I prepared for that with a speechwriter,” Harrington says. “His name is Michael Sheehan. We talked about what happened in the DNC. And then we talked about two topics. We talked about meeting Joe Biden and what a stutter is. And we combined those two things in the DNC speech.”
Being a Biden supporter, Harrington says that he was happy to hear when Biden won the election. It felt like a victory for him, too.
“When he won the election, I felt really happy for him because he put in the time and effort, and I felt really happy for me, too,” he says. “He took a chance to bring a 13-year-old with a speech impediment into that world to help him out… And it’s been a really nice journey with him.”
“I want to be a speech language pathologist,” Harrington says. “Because I want to really help kids with a speech impediment. It doesn’t have to be a stutter; it could be anything. I want to help people crawl out of the shadows, if they are in them.”
Harrington tells PEOPLE that his book writing process onBrayden Speaks Upwas simple and efficient.
“We had to write a draft. It was online and someone sent us the rough draft and we said, ‘I want this in here, I don’t want this in here,’ " he says. “And then we sent it back. It was an easy process.”
InBrayden Speaks Up, Harrington reveals how his stutter is his “greatest strength.” He shows that the most powerful thing kids can do is use their voice.
“Everybody has a challenge,” says Harrington of the book’s message. “And everybody has the chance to overcome it at any point in their lifetime.”
Brayden Speaks Up: How One Boy Inspired the Nationison salenow.
source: people.com
