Jonna is known as Lil Miss Ross on social media because at the three feet, she is literally little.
However, she has a big heart and an even bigger presence as she inspires others through dancing and body positivity.
Jonna said: “A lot of times when I’m in public, most of the time little kids will shout out: ‘Look a little person’ or, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so short. Why is she so short?’
“If they come and talk to me, I’ll just explain: ‘I was born with a type of dwarfism. It’s not like a disease. You can’t catch it. It’s not going to do anything to you. I am just like you, just with shorter limbs, that’s it. I’m the same person like you.’”
Watch to find out more of her inspiring story below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Jonna’s dwarfism comes with obvious challenges. Aside from public scrutiny, she needs child-sized clothing and needed to have her car adapted to accommodate her. For longer distances, she needs to use a mobility scooter.
Jonna said: “The type of dwarfism I have is cartilage hair hypoplasia, which means basically all my limbs are just smaller. It’s a genetic disease so it’s like a mutation.”
But even for someone with dwarfism, Jonna’s stature is still especially small.
She said: “For me specifically, I think I’m a lot shorter than most dwarfs so that can be a problem when it comes to trying to reach things, trying to find my way around like a grocery store. I have to specifically either ask someone to walk with me to get stuff or bring a friend. I think that I also live by stools like everywhere I go.
“Walking is more difficult because I’m so much shorter. It takes for one step as an average size of about three for me, so I walk a lot more and I have to take a lot more breaks which is really hard sometimes.”
She was bullied as a child and as a result, developed eating disorders.
She said: “Schooling for me was pretty bad. I was bullied probably my entire life.”
“On top of being different, I would always be made fun of for my weight all the time and I feel like every girl goes through that but it was really bad.”
She turned to food for comfort and see-sawed between gorging on food and not eating at all.
Jonna recalls: “Food was a way for me to feel comforted when I couldn’t feel that by myself. So I used food a lot – either eating a lot or not eating at all as a way of controlling that part of my life when I couldn’t control other people or anything else.”
When she turned 21, Jonna left home to go to college.
“I turned 21 and I found alcohol and it was like this magical thing that helped me be this confident, awesome person. When I was drinking I felt like I could do anything, be anyone, talk to boys, like do whatever I wanted to do.
“This whole alter ego came out. And so it was fun at first. And then it didn’t become fun anymore.
“The last three years before I got sober, all I did was blackout. Every time I drank. I didn’t drink all the time, but when I did drink, I blacked out and I never knew where I was, who I was with and that’s pretty unsafe.
“I was very depressed, suicidal, like just really bad. And I just didn’t want to feel that way anymore.”
Fortunately, both friends and family intervened and Jonna successfully completed rehab and has remained sober for nearly three years.
Dance played a big part in her recovery. She used to dance as a child but stopped when she was 13 as she thought she was too small to be a dancer.
She said: “I’ve loved dancing ever since I was little. When I was six years old, I started dancing. I did ballet, I did tap dancing, I did jazz and hip hop.
“And then when I was about 12 or 13, I stopped because I realized that if I wanted to continue dancing in the studio, I don’t look like the dancers and I was told that I was never going to be a dancer because of how I looked from a teacher.”
Once she became sober again, Jonna attended a dance class.
She said: “It helped me again figure out how much confidence I have in myself and like what I can actually do and I could actually do this.”
She soon started sharing videos from her classes which caught the eye of some famous viewers.
“I just kept getting so many views and followers. All the responses were amazing. So I was like, ‘Oh, okay, maybe I am good at this!’ And then it blew up from there. Chris Brown posted one and Snoop Dogg posted one and I was like: ‘What is happening?!’”
Recently, a swimsuit company asked her to model for them.
She said: “It made me feel so empowered by women. I think everyone has this feeling of a bathing suit or a bikini – as only certain people should wear it.
“And it’s like, that’s not the case – everyone should wear a bikini and feel confident.”
Jonna also just graduated from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s in Child and Adolescent Development and intends to become a children’s therapist. All that happened to her has led her on the path towards loving herself and she wants to inspire other young people to love themselves, too.
She said: “I would say that being a dwarf was the reason why I drink because I never accepted who I fully am. And once I did that, it like freed me from everything.
“And so being sober literally saved my life because I finally got to let go of all that and be whoever I want to be and not care what other people think.”
Replaced!