Telling somebody your name is usually a fleeting moment that requires little to no thought. But for 24-year-old Georgia Scott, it’s an ordeal - and it often leaves her paralysed with anxiety.
At the age of five, Georgia developed a stammer - a speech impediment characterised by repeated sounds, disruptions or stoppages in the fluency of speech.
The condition meant she was unable to answer the register at school, couldn’t say her own name and was forced into silence for the majority of her life.
But the media executive from Newcastle has since turned to TikTok as an outlet, sharing the highs and lows of living with a stammer to her millions of viewers.
Georgia's videos quickly went viral after she began filming herself in environments that force her to be social with strangers.
From making speeches in public to opening up about her mental health and delving into the psychological effects of stammering, Georgia documents it all.
In her most popular TikToks videos, she can be seen ordering food at restaurants and drive-thrus.
She told the Mirror: “The fear gets worse if you don't push yourself. Sometimes I feel paralysed with anxiety, but I do it anyway, no matter what my speech is going to be like.
“I felt forced into silence for the majority of my life because I was so embarrassed about my stammer.
“I didn’t want to be known as the girl with a stammer, I just hated everything about it. I hated the fact that I felt I couldn't be my true self.
Now, Georgia proudly shares her stammer with fans online, using social media as a tool to help raise awareness.
Georgia, who says that her crippling social anxiety almost forced her to cancel her interview, recalls feeling held back at school due to her speech impediment.
“I didn’t once raise my hand at school, or ask my teachers for help”, she says.
“It was so frustrating when the teacher would ask the class a simple question, and nobody would answer. I’d be sat there thinking - you are all fluent speakers, why aren’t you participating? I would love to be able to do that!”, she added.
Her earliest recollection of the condition came when she was just 5-years-old and was asked to read an extract from a book to the class. When her attempt was met with laughter, Georgia avoided contributing to lessons altogether.
The anxiety surrounding her stammer then grew so severe that it began to dictate almost every decision she made in life.
“I stayed at the same sixth form within my school, because I didn't want to go to college.
“And that was almost the wrong decision for me because I was doing what my stammer was forcing me to do - staying within my comfort zone because it was too difficult for me to go elsewhere”, she says.
Despite this, Georgia says that she was lucky to have a great support system of friends and family to keep her going.
By documenting the peaks and troughs of her life online, Georgia hopes to become the role model that she didn’t have growing up.
“The most famous representation is Gareth Gates, and there are films like The King's Speech - but what I’ve found was that there wasn't a young girl who just liked makeup, fashion, going out with friends - there was no one like me growing up.”
“I honestly thought, am I the only person on the planet who is like this?”, she says.
Since undergoing speech therapy with the McGuire programme, the TikTok star has been determined to continue challenging herself.
She told the Mirror: “I joined the McGuire programme at age 17, and it made me believe in myself.
“It’s an intensive speech course run by people who stammer. I learnt techniques to help manage my stammer and I am constantly working on overcoming my most feared situations”, she added.
As well as taking part in various speaking challenges online, Georgia has used her TikTok account as a tool to help educate others about speech impediments - and disprove the various misconceptions surrounding stammers.
Georgia says: "When people say that a person who stammers just needs to relax and calm down before they speak, it makes me laugh, because if only it was that easy. We'd all be doing it.”
“If you’re speaking to someone who stammers, my advice would be to wait and just be patient. I think more harm can come from finishing off a person's sentence.
“Even if it makes the person who stammers life easier at that moment, long term, it won’t make it easier - because that person will think about the fact that they didn't say that word themselves.
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