 It's weird to know that my presence might frighten someone, might scare a little kid, might like give them bad dreams, frightens them enough that they will scream and run away in a grocery store. Well hello there and welcome back to my channel, my beautiful, lovely, intelligent and delightful internet friends. Thank you so much for joining me here today on Footless Joe where I am still Joe and I am still missing a foot and that fact is gonna be very relevant to the rest of today's video. So something happened the other day when I went to the grocery store to get, you guessed it, groceries. It's not the first time that I've run into this kind of a situation since I became an amputee but it definitely is kind of a stark reminder of the occasional reality. So we're gonna talk a little bit today about terrifying children, very unintentionally. Like as in my existence, my existence frightens children. I talk a little bit of the ins and outs of that and how that so heavily plays into why I do what I do here. But first, before we dive in, two quick things. Number one, you probably know what I'm gonna say. If you wouldn't mind hitting that subscribe button, that like button, maybe ringing that bell notification if you're feeling extra generous, I can tell you one thing. It would make Sophie really, really happy. Your decision, I mean if you want to disappoint the puppy dog, go for it. And secondly, a quick word from our amazing sponsor. Sponsoring today's video we have Surfshark VPN. You've heard me talk about these guys before but it's a company I'm really excited to continue to partner with because they help you secure your online identity. Unfortunately, in our day and age, identity theft is not a joke, Jim. It is an actual problem. And if online security just doesn't do it for you, using a VPN also allows you to access a lot more entertainment on streaming services like Netflix. With a VPN, you can change the country you are connecting from and suddenly you will see pop up on Netflix a whole host of new things that were not available previously in your country. All you need to do is use this VPN to change where you are connecting from and suddenly you will see what is available in Germany or China or Venezuela or the US. And if you click the link right down there below, you will get 83% off a membership and up to three months free, which is a pretty darn fantastic deal. I highly recommend using a VPN. I personally do secure your online identity and with that, let's dive back in. So there I stood just a few days ago in the coffee aisle of my local grocery store. In short, now that is an important part of the story solely for the reason that you can see my carbon fiber rocket foot. We call her sunshine because I'm walking on sunshine and behind me, I hear the approaching of little feet and then I hear a kid screech and then exit the aisle very quickly. And I turned around and Brian was there with me and he was like, yeah, that kid just saw your leg screamed and ran away. And in the moment, we kind of like laughed it off because really, what else are you going to do? But it doesn't feel great to be frightening to children for like my existence, to be frightening to children. Now, this is not the first time this has happened. And I want to make it really clear that I am in no way talking trash about children because I think reactions like this makes sense. A few of my good friends' kids have also been scared of me. Now, none of them have like screamed and run away, but I've had it where they won't come close to me or they're like hide behind their parents for a very long time, just kind of peeking out and staring at me. I've had their parents tell me like, yes, they're a little bit scared because of your leg, you know, you look different. I'm sorry. And I'm like, it's okay. You know, it's cool. And I have found in every single one of these situations, by the time I've spent a few minutes there, by the time I've maybe chatted with the kid a little while or like sat down to play with them pretty quickly, it becomes no longer a thing. It's no longer an issue. They might start asking questions about my leg. I get to show them my cool carbon fiber rocket foot and then we're good. And I think at least I hope that I've done a good job of managing these situations of like trying to disarm things that people are scared because I get like, it's weird. It's different. It's not what you see every day. And in those moments, I'm solid. I'm good. But like I said, the reality is that like it's weird to know that my presence might frighten someone, might scare a little kid, might like give them bad dreams, frightens them enough that they will scream and run away in a grocery store. Like I'm not a monster. I'm a person who happens to have a now detachable body part. And there are definitely days where that hurts a little bit, right? Where like the fact that I'm scaring people by existing on the planet can hurt. But at the end of the day, I'm fine. I understand it. I often get asked why I have this channel, why I make like the TikToks I make, why I talk so much about like amputation and disability in my leg, along with mental health and other subjects. And this is one of the biggest reasons being terrified or scared of what is different from you can be a pretty normal human thing. But especially talking about like kids and young people, a reality which I think is really uncomfortable to look at, at least for me, is the fact that things that are different than us, things that we are not familiar with are generally inherently kind of scary. Like we live in this world now that's very integrated in a lot of ways. We live in a world that that promotes inclusion and different voices. We're not there yet at all, but at least we're getting closer slowly, but surely. But as much as we might like to live in a world where people are not seen as like the other and different if they are not us, we do still live in that world. Seeing people who physically appear different than the average human being, walking around someone like me who's missing a leg or someone who is very visible, scarring or whatever it may be. The reality is that that is frightening and unnerving and uncomfortable to a lot of people. And for me and the way that I have structured this channel and structured how I speak about things and how I do things, it all revolves around the fact that I truly believe if we can just have conversations as people and see each other as human beings above everything else as cliche as that may seem, things get a lot better a lot faster. Having a space where you can ask questions that might be ignorant but not be judged for it, like have an answer to those questions that you've always wondered about people who are different than you in whatever capacity that may be, I think is so vital. Because without that, whatever topic it may be, let's say disability still has a bunch of question marks around it and uncertainty and looks different and is I don't know about that, right? Like some of my friends, kids who have been scared of me get not scared of me very quickly. Once they're around me a little bit, once I get to talk to them, once they can ask questions about my leg or express that they're uncomfortable but then not be met with like anger or judgment. Because for me anyways, it's like it's a natural response when someone's afraid of me because I exist in the world. It's a natural response to be sad and kind of angry. Like, God, just get it together, kid, right? And very clearly that comes from a place of a little bit of hurt and insecurity. But at the end of the day, I get it. I get why children are frightened of me. That doesn't mean that it doesn't feel kind of crappy. But I understand it, which is why I think it is so important that we have representation in the media, in the world, that we see and we hear from more people who are different than us, who are not us, who may not belong to the same group of people that we find ourselves in. Because I don't know about you, but I'd really love to live in a world where no one has to deal with feeling like they're a monster because they exist. And I would love to live in a world where children don't have to be frightened of things or people who are a little bit different than what they are. That is one of the biggest reasons why I will continue to wear shorts in public and have conversations with people and be open to questions that are asked respectfully in the vast majority of situations. And perhaps as more conversations and more interactions and more visibility happens, that fear and otherness will start to dissipate even a little bit more. And I would love to see that. I'd love to be a part of that. So yeah, the experience of a kid being terrified of me because I was standing in an aisle is definitely a weird one. But like I said, at the end of the day, I think it is understandable. But I really hope that through further education and conversations and visibility, perhaps that will happen less. And on the very far off chance that kid ever watches this video. Hey there, I'm Joe. I've got a carbon fiber rocket foot. It's like a robot. It's pretty cool. Also, it's not contagious. So you can come and ask me questions and this will not happen to you. To our delightful and useful sponsor. Again, thank you so much for sponsoring today's video. To my patrons over on Patreon. Thank you so much for your continued support over there. You are the reason why I can make these videos. Thank you. If you're interested in becoming a patron and learning a little bit more about what that is, you can check out the link on screen or down below. And with that being said to you, watching this video right now, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere in the world doing absolutely anything else. And you chose to spend a few minutes with me and I really appreciate that. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys.