‘I’M MORE AWESOMER’
How children with differences are reacting to the movie Wonder
When you’re a child and your face doesn’t look like everyone else’s, when a genetic anomaly leaves you with contorted ears and eyes and dozens of surgeries still can’t really fix it, what you hope for is kindness. Your wish is that people see beyond your face.
The bestselling book Wonder, which tells the fictional tale of such a kid, has had a massive cultural impact in recent years as teachers have used it to teach empathy.
The movie Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, follows fifth-grader Auggie Pullman (played by Jacob Tremblay), an anti-bullying hero, as he enters a new school and the turbulence that unfolds as he shows his classmates how his face is misshapen but he’s just a regular kid.
Families of kids with facial differences have embraced the credo of acceptance in the book, so much so that some rented out theatres around the U.S. for advanced viewings of the film.
Yet despite Wonder’s important lessons, the story is not entirely relatable for some children who have Auggie’s condition, Treacher Collins syndrome.
“I didn’t like that Auggie was ashamed of his face,” said Teresa Joy Dyson, 10. “I have Treacher Collins syndrome and I’m kind of proud of my face. I’m not afraid to look at people and show who I am.”
Teresa Joy has attended a public school in San Jose, Calif., since she was in kindergarten, and has many friends there. She is not bullied, as Auggie is in the book.
Zachary Muller, 12, also has Treacher Collins, a condition that leaves bones and tissues severely underdeveloped in his face and has left him with hearing loss. Zachary said he liked Wonder, but he points out that it’s fiction.
“I’m more awesomer than him,” Zachary said of Auggie. “I’m real.”
Zachary’s family, along with another family that has a son with a facial difference, rented out a theatre in Maryland so the boys could see the movie in a space with people they select. Zachary’s mother wanted him to experience the movie without the pressure of people looking at him and saying, “Oh, that’s the real Auggie.”
“We owe it to him to see the movie before it’s open to the public,” Barbara Muller said before the movie “so he’s prepared if we go out to dinner and somebody says something to him.”
Zachary has had more than 20 surgeries, including two 12-hour surgeries to implant ears on his head, even though they don’t improve his hearing, as he uses hearing aids for that. He was born without ears.
Muller said Zachary hasn’t been bullied, but he sometimes feels like he’s on display when he’s out with family.
“He used to hide behind us. He used to say, ‘Why are they looking at me? Because I’m different?’ ” Muller said. “We’d say, ‘Zachary, everybody is different.’
“We’ve taught him how to deal with them. We tell him that if people are staring, you look at them straight in the face and say ‘hi,’ ” she said.
Nine-year-old Kyle Aftimos, a friend of Zachary’s, was born with a cleft lip and palate. A year-anda-half ago, he had a surgery to remove a bone from his hip and place it in his palate, a procedure that caused him to miss six weeks of school.
Kyle said the Wonder story is educating people who do not share his condition.
“I’m grateful for the movie because some people have heard about it but they don’t bother reading the book. So if they watch the movie, they’ll understand more about it and stop the bullying,” Kyle said.