Suad Mooga

But yeah, from a very young age, you're kind of made known, you know, you are different.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's definitely, there wasn't any dismissiveness from my family specifically.

I think it was a bit different because obviously, you know, having come over from Somalia, they had already experienced sort of that experience as well, same as me.

So it was a lot of reaffirming and just telling, you know, warning me, listen, you are going to experience a lot of this, but just remember who you are.

Like, just, you know, stand up for yourself and just a lot of building me up to who I am today.

So, yeah, it's because it did happen a lot, but...

It's never just, yeah.

Absolutely.

Probably, I'd say, do you know what?

When I was younger, I think I must have been about 12.

That was like my first proper experience, especially that I got physically harassed, physically assaulted.

I got glass thrown at me and was called like a lot of very racist terms.

So that was kind of when it really, really kind of stood out to me.

Okay, now I need to, you know, be more aware of how I am in this world, how I'm perceived to people.

So definitely from a young age, but...

For sure.

Perception, yeah.

But it's definitely changed a lot, I will say.