Community Corner
Jasmine Burkitt Redefines Life as a Teenager with Dwarfism
UK teenager, who has become a celebrity, enjoys visiting family in Mountainside.
There aren't too many places Jasmine Burkitt can go where she doesn't face some form of discrimination.
"When people meet me or see me on the street they seem to think that I can't hear or see them and say whatever they want to or do whatever they want to because I am stupid as well as small."
Burkitt, a 17-year old from North Wales in the United Kingdom, has a rare form of dwarfism. That alone would classify her as unique, but what truly makes her stand out is her willingness to share her life with others through a series of reality-based documentaries.
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"The response has been amazin'," Burkitt said. "People are contacting us on Facebook and Twitter to say how inspirational it is and how brave I am to go out on the tele and say I am an average person and stop treating us like we are clowns."
For the past two years, Burkitt has been the subject of two documentaries about her life and her family. Now somewhat of a celebrity, she is in the United States for several weeks to enjoy time with her Auntie Shelly Drori who lives in Mountainside and to perhaps make contact with a United States-based production company who would pick up the series.
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Burkitt's series, which is called Small Teen, Big World is similar to a reality show in the U.S. profiling the lives of a family with dwarfism called Little People, Big World.
"I have seen them and I admire them a lot" Burkitt said. "It's kind of hard becuase they are very, very rich and they have everything adapted. We are not rich at all -- we're working class."
Both shows serve to document that people with dwarfism are not really limited other than occasionally by size. Burkitt said her documentaries are "to show that no matter what your disbility is, you can do anything."
Apparently, families in the UK are glued to their televisions. The first documentary that was shown in the UK last year received the highest audience ratings ever for a "one off" documentary. While she is in the U.S., a new four-show, one hour series is being filmed in part on her travels.
One of the core themes in the first documentary was Burkitt's attempts to reconnect with her father, who abandoned her after she was born. Her father, who is 5'8", has a history with drugs.
The second documentary ended on a cliffhanger with Jasmine sending a letter to her father waiting a reply. "It ends really emotionally since my Dad and I are not in contact at the moment. He had a relapse," Burkitt said. "I said to him the day I met him, 'if you are moving on with your drugs I'm sorry but I don't want to see you until you are clean.' He had a chance to give them up and he didn't. It's very hard to be put second."
Burkitt said she personally is sanctioning the content in the documentaries. It's important, she said, to show others that she has a life as normal as any other teenager, despite her size.
"I think my size pushed me to do more than I would normally because people tell me I can't do things," Burkitt said. "I say well maybe I can and it gives me an inccentive to do more that I would if I were normal height."
Burkett left school at 13 because "I was bullied alot and the school did not want to deal with it," she said. Her mother, who also has dwarfism, home taught her daughter, who has just finished college at Coleg Llysfasi in Wales with a degree in Animal Care.