STAMMAFest 2026: I have never felt so free

Monday 7th September 2026

Rhiannan (left) taking a selfie with Jessie from The Traitors, one of the guest speakers at STAMMAFest 2026

Rhiannan Smith tells us what attending her first STAMMAFest 2026 meant to her.

I've been trying to summarise my time at STAMMAFest and I feel there are no right words that are powerful enough to express how much it meant to me.

It was my first stammering festival and one of the greatest events I've ever been to. Feeling part of such an open and welcoming community, who know full well how much of a struggle it is to be a stammerer in everyday life. It was like living in a world where stammering was classed as normal. No judgement, no ridicule, no funny stares, no anxiety of people thinking "she's forgotten her words" or me overthinking that I need to hurry up.

Four women in cowboy hats sitting at a table and smiling

Rhiannan (second left) with three friends she met at STAMMAFest 2026

Before STAMMAFest, I wondered whether or not anyone would like me or want to talk to me, because as a stammerer it's really difficult to be social sometimes, especially when you live in a world where the majority of people around you don't stammer. It's like you want to be social but you don't know how to and that internal anxiety spins around in your head.

I feel heard. I feel seen. I feel my true self and the only person who really does need to love me, is me.

But at STAMMAFest I approached people for the first time in a long time and said "Hi, my name is Rhi". And now, I've got a group chat with two other girls who are genuinely the most beautiful girls I've ever met and we all feel exactly the same. I hit it off with one of the girls on the first night and we've kind of became inseparable.

A woman standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone

Rhiannan speaking at the open mic

I even got up on stage at the open mic and made a speech about my time at STAMMAFest in front of hundreds of people. I said that I had arrived on Thursday knowing no-one and left on Sunday with beautiful friends and an incredible family. Me. The girl who sometimes feels like she can't string two words together. The girl who always feels inferior to everyone else because of how she talks. The girl who thought no-one would like her and always feels like the weirdo in social groups.

I have never felt so free.

After years of self-doubt, putting myself down and thinking that no-one else could love me because of my stammer, I feel heard. I feel seen. I feel my true self and the only person who really does need to love me, is me.

It doesn't matter how fluent my speech is. Now is the time to own my stammer and embrace it. And, I've also realised that I can talk for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales!

I am so proud of myself. I am proud to stammer, because if everyone was the same then the world would be boring.

Celebrate your differences. Celebrate being you.