Brooke Greenberg (b. January 8, 1993) is, as of January 8, 2012, a 19 year old girl who lives in Reisterstown, Maryland, which is a northern suburb of Baltimore. She is a very special little person, as she has not aged or changed physically, mentally, or emotionally in the past 15 years. I definitely can at least empathize with her situation, because I have high functioning autism, and well, socially and emotionally, I'm like a four or five year old myself (I get told this by friends and family a lot too). Little Brooke is 30 inches tall (she has grown 3 inches since last time WBAL did this report on her) and now weighs in at 16 lbs. Certainly nowhere near a typical 19 year old in height or weight. She lives with her parents and 3 wonderful sisters who love her very much. There is even a better video of her on Dateline NBC; if you google "Brooke Greenberg Dateline NBC", you will find a 8 minute video that Dateline did on her in 2005 October. She is very cute and as her father Howard calls her, "the most sweetest and kindest person I know of".
Her pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence Pakula, who also studies about autism and Attention Deficit Disorder in children (both of which I have), mentions that people might think Brooke is perhaps a "handicapped 2 year old", but would never think she was 17, if they didn't know her. Brooke doesn't speak, but that doesn't mean she's not smart. (For example, there have been autistic people who have gone to college who don't speak at all and are very smart). She does manage to get around, by scooting on the floor, and at her school (she goes to a special ed school), she manages to get around via a baby walker, so I guess you could say, in a way, she knows how to walk, albeit in a walker.
What is interesting is that no one knows WHY she is like this, doctors have examined her genetic material and have found nothing abnormal. There is no one in the world like her - Brooke is the only one person in the world that is like this. But it doesn't really matter to her parents, they love her no matter what.
She could be the fountain of youth too, if she or someone she knows can discover what makes her this way, she'd be the world's first zillionaire. I mean, I'm sure there's not many people that would want to be 4 years old or 2 years old forever, but probably a large proportion of adults would love to stay 20 forever.
In spite of a stroke she suffered at 5 years of age, and other problems such as 5 stomach ulcers when she was 3 years old, she has blossomed and thrived. She hasn't really had many medical problems since she was 5; she's stabilized, and she is now in fairly good health, except one winter (I think it was 2005) she was hospitalized with a respiratory problem. A true inspiration to anyone, for sure.
I feel actually children and child-like people give more to the world than most adults do. Contribution to society isn't just measured by how much money you have; babies, toddlers, and children contribute every day to the world by being compassionate and caring. Most young children are really far more empathetic, kind, compassionate, nonjudgemental, nonracist, and understanding than most adults are.
We learn to hate and be mean as we grow older.
This video was from a broadcast of WBAL TV in Baltimore.
It was taken in 2005, when Brooke was 12. She is now 19 years old. There are other videos of Brooke on YouTube that are more recent. The ABC talk show 20/20 did a 10 minute segment on Brooke last year in June. There are a few videos on YouTube that shows that segment. Also, TLC (The Learning Channel) did a 1 hour long documentary about Brooke Greenberg's life. It premiered in August 2009, and is sometimes shown as a re-run.
Anyway, certainly a nice little inspiring video and I hope you enjoy this. And also, sorry for my long descriptions / narrations on all my videos so far, I tend to do that.
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