South African YouTuber Caspar Lee on Growing Up with Tourette’s Syndrome

South African YouTube sensation Caspar Lee has been praised for his latest video, posted yesterday, which shines a light on young people living with Tourette Syndrome.

Caspar, who revealed in 2013 that he grew up with Tourette’s, interviews a few young kids about their experiences (although there’s one – Thomas in the purple shirt – who turns the interview on Caspar!).

WATCH Caspar Lee on Growing Up With Tourette’s Syndrome 

There are no exact statistics because not all those with Tourette’s are diagnosed, but it is estimated that 0.3% of children aged three to 17 have Tourette Syndrome – an inherited, neurological condition, which consists of tics, involuntary and uncontrollable sounds and movements, according to Tourettes Action.

Caspar describes it as “like if you have an itch that you can’t scratch, and it just gets worse and worse until you scratch it”.

His first tic happened when he was six-years-old. “I was watching a movie with my sister and I went [makes a snore sound].” In a previous interview Caspar described how after six minutes of making ‘pig snore’ sounds, his sister told him to leave. Luckily he went to his dad, who had also suffered as a child, and was able to console him.

Caspar’s mother has described how difficult growing up with Tourette’s was for Caspar. She said he not only had lots of twitches but there was the psychological impact… BUT, she said on British TV, “it made him who he is today, it made him the success he is today”.

Caspar’s teacher would kick him out of class for being disruptive because “she thought I was whistling to annoy them”. It means Caspar spent more time alone, and on his computer, which helped him focus… and distracted him from his tics (often brought on during stressful situations with people).

Caspar admits to one of the kids in the video that he was bullied, and that the worst time for him was when he was ten, going through puberty and worried about what people thought of him.

Caspar, who now has over 7.5-million subscribers on YouTube, has mainly grown out of his Tourette’s. But although it’s behind him, it’s so important for the hard-working 24-year-old to raise awareness for other kids.

“If everyone understands just a little bit more about what others are going through, the world will be a better place,” he says, and asks people who notice those with tics to neither laugh at them, nor give them sympathy. “Everyone just wants to be normal,” he says.

Caspar’s followers – particularly those with Tourette’s or with siblings with Tourette’s – have praised him on social media for this video.

“This is so incredibly inspiring and important! Thank you for putting focus on Tourette’s Syndrome ????” said one.

“Casper I truly love you for this, I do anyway… but I feel like I just love you even more after watching this video,” said another.

All AdSense advertising revenue made from the video will be donated to Tourettes Action.  It’s Tourette’s Awareness Day on 7 June 2018.

If your device can’t view the above video, try this (although it’s shorter):

Growing Up With Tourette’s Syndrome pic.twitter.com/2bfm8XWFeg

— Caspar Lee (@Caspar_Lee) May 27, 2018

Follow Caspar Lee on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/caspar