Different Like Delia began as a way for Ann Marie to help her daughter Ava cope with the emotions she experienced surrounding her stutter, and writing their story together served as a distraction from her sober reality.
Ava and Ann Marie spent many tearful nights discussing her dysfluency and the question of why it happened to her. Her older brother Eamon understood since he began to stutter at the age of five. Eamon and Ava have felt confused, embarrassed, and frustrated by their stuttering. The truth is, stuttering in itself is not the problem: it’s the reaction from others that causes the pain.
