Yeah, it's difficult and different things work for different people. I'm of the belief that it is not necessary to be a fluent-speaker, and all negative feelings around stammering are related to anxiety (understandably). For me, I've done several things that I think are helping. Firstly, I've started getting involved in my local stammering community and doing volunteering (this is probably something for 18+). This has the dual effect of giving me speaking practice in a safe, judgement-free environment (e.g. I've done presentations and spoken to crowds about things related to stammering) and also making me feel less isolated. Not to put blame on my parents or anything (they were definitely doing what they thought was best for me at the time), but they were told by a speech therapist to never bring up my stammer, so I never had anyone to tell me that it was OK to speak the way that I did. In that sense, I've found talking to other people who stammer quite useful, and talking to close friends about it. I've also found that psychological therapy (specifically, cognitive behavioural therapy) has helped me learn to approach my negative beliefs around stammering in a critical way. This is quite contingent on finding a good therapist who works with people who stammer, which I've heard is pretty difficult, and I got lucky. Something that has helped me the most is finding role models (i.e. people who have the life that you aspire to have) who have a stammer that is at least as severe as yours. It's difficult to find them, and joining stammering networks will help you. Even better, speak to them as ask for advice. For me, the thing that I've always worried about the most was being discredited because of my speech and its impact on my career. Seeing that there were actually very successful people in my field who had a stammer 'worse' than mine put this anxiety at ease. Honestly, at the end of the day, you need to reflect on the sort of life that you want. You're very young and possibly not quite at that stage yet, but you will have some sort of idea. Then, just focus on that. I don't think that going to Toastmaster's or joining a debating club is particularly useful if your ambitions in life don't involve giving brilliant speeches. However, do you have an interest in politics and actually *want* to join a debate club? Are you interested in computer science, and want to join a club where people talk about it? Do you want to make some money over the Summer break, and there's a cafe around the corner from your house which is looking to hire a barister? These are all things that involve having to talk to people, but ultimately they'd be getting you something you actually want. At the end of the day, you don't want your stammer getting in the way of things that you want to do, and I personally feel that the best way to do that is to act like your stammer is not there. It won't be fun at first. The constant humiliation really is difficult to get used to, and I'm not all the way there yet either, but it does get easier. Generally, as people get older they stop caring about a lot of things anyway, and the same goes for stammering. And, in my opinion, the sooner you break the habit of avoidance the better, since this will speed up the process. TLDR: The advice I wish I'd been given at 16 (which I'd probably have ignored lol) is to stop avoiding stammering in front of people. Contrary to a lot of advice that fluent-speakers and other stammerers/stutterers give, I really don't think that going out of your way to gain public speaking experience is necessary, depending on your life goals. I personally think it's best to focus on the things you actually want to do and not letting your stammer get in the way.