STAMMA celebrates ‘major win’ for stammering representation on BBC Traitors

As Jessie Stride’s journey on the Traitors comes to an end, STAMMA celebrates her appearance as a long-overdue victory for stammering representation.

28-year-old Jessie Stride, from Hull, is one of the most popular contestants on the BBC’s game show, and has shared her experience of stammering very openly, helping raise awareness in the mainstream and dismantling misconceptions.

STAMMA has been pushing for more and better stammering representation for years, with calls for year-round stammering inclusion in the media at the core of the 2021 campaign ‘No Diversity Without Disfluency’ and its 2022 ‘Love Letter to the Film & TV Industry’ extension.

With The Traitors being one of the BBC's biggest shows, watched by millions of people across the country, Jessie’s appearance helped raise awareness of some of the barriers people who stammer can face, and challenge some of the stereotypes about the community.

From the very beginning, Jessie highlighted some little-known challenges people who stammer face and educated her fellow contestants. When blocking on her name while introducing herself to some of them, Jessie stopped and told those around her of her disfluency. Without apologising for it, she coolly said, "You're going to have to bear with me because I have a stammer," before continuing to say her name. She then opened up about how doing so is "one of the biggest tests ever".

Data from a recent member survey we conducted found 94% of people who stammer find words that can't be swapped like their name and date of birth hard to say, so it was brilliant to see Jessie raise awareness of this unseen challenge on a mainstream TV show.

This can have major day-to-day implications, for example when making a call to a bank, or trying to book a GP appointment. If ID procedures don't account for this and allow the right amount of time, people who stammer can get locked out of services and be left unable to carry out everyday tasks, like accessing their bank account or getting a doctor’s appointment.

STAMMA’s latest campaign, Don’t Hang Up, Hang On, urges businesses and organisations across the UK to take this into consideration in their ID procedures, allowing extra time, training staff to recognise stammering and providing alternative channels where appropriate.

Jessie actively leveraged her platform on the Traitors to raise stammering awareness, saying being able to represent the community “means more than any prize money ever could”.

In a social media post following her elimination from the programme, Jessie said: “My whole purpose was to help raise awareness of stammering, and I believe I have done that.

“Stammering isn’t talked about enough. [...] It’s important that we educate people on it. [...] I’ve read a couple of comments of people asking why I stammer more in this episode whereas in this one I haven’t stammered much. The answer is: I don’t know. A stammer is really unpredictable. People can link it with nerves, but it isn’t because I’m nervous. Nerves don’t help, but I don’t stammer because I’m nervous.”

Kirsten Howells, Deputy CEO and Director of Services at STAMMA, said: "It was incredibly exciting to see Jessie’s journey on the Traitors, and we’re very sad to see her go. We're very rarely seen on TV, and when we are, it's very often related to just our stammer. While Jessie has of course helped raise awareness of stammering, speaking about it very openly, we also see her getting fully involved in the game, being very vocal and taking on all the challenges.

"It was also great to see how she brilliantly highlighted that having to say your name as a person who stammers can be hugely challenging, from the very first time we saw her on screen. Many people who don’t stammer might not be aware of this, so the fact it’s being talked about on a show watched by millions of people can really help raise awareness.

"This is something that has lots of day-to-day implications, beyond introducing yourself to a group of people. For example, making a call to the bank, or trying to make a GP appointment. We may need more time during ID procedures because it's likely to take us longer to get through things like saying our name, or account number, our postcode."

“Jessie’s journey on the show may have come to an end, but she remains a much-loved contestant, and in her time, she managed to not only play a fantastic game, but also brilliantly represent the stammering community and make a difference for thousands of people across the UK."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

· Data on call experiences from a survey of 356 people who stammer, conducted by STAMMA over September 2025.

· At least 550,000 adults in the UK stammer, which, according to ContactBabel, the leading analyst firm for the contact centre industry, equates to at least 43 million calls made by adults who stammer every year, accounting for the fact that people who stammer try and avoid making phone calls.