Hell yeah. Kids can be mean. The thing I hated more though was when teachers would give me the stares. You’d think an adult would know what a speech impediment was. I vividly remember one HS teacher calling me “hormonal” once, because I spoke fast with a stutter. I really hated how shitty it felt to have everything you say dismissed because people only see your stutter. I would avoid presentations and public speaking as much as possible. I was always self conscious because of it, even though now, thankfully, it’s pretty mild. Every time I stutter in an obvious way (especially if it’s in front of a crowd) I get flashbacks of being mocked as a child and I feel very vulnerable (which is unlike me). I also care wayyy too much about having people’s complete attention when I speak, because feeling the slightest dismissal makes me feel like a 7 y/o child who’s being ignored because of her stutter. I feel very shitty when I stutter in public, almost ashamed. Even when my friends say “I didn’t notice” or “ohh I just thought you were a little nervous, no need to feel so self conscious” but I feel like I just did the most embarrassing thing ever.