Emily Purkey, 16 years old, attending her first FRIENDS Convention

Emily Purkey joins Peter Reitzes at the FRIENDS 18th annual convention in Raleigh, North Carolina. Emily is 16 years old and is attending her first FRIENDS convention. Ms. Purkey discusses the importance of just stuttering over chasing fluency, speech tools being “tricks”,  of using stuttering as a social filter, her very positive experience at Camp SAY and much more. Emily observes that society would not ask fluent people to stutter, so why do we ask people who stutter to be fluent. Emily shares how FRIENDS instantly became family to her and that people accept her without judgement.