30 facts you may not know about Stranger Things

4. Dustin’s cleidocranial dysplasia was written in

I don’t know about everyone else, but I know one of my characters to come out of Stranger Things was Dustin Henderson. Between the group of boys, Dustin acted as the happy medium who held them all accountable for everything they said. He was the friendliest and delivered that heartwarming line about eating kangaroos for breakfast. Plus, I just really loved his look. He has gorgeous eyes, wears a misshapen hat, and he speaks with a lisp.

According to Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin, he missed a lot of acting opportunities because of it. But not Stranger Things.

On the fan response he’s gotten, Matarazzo said:

"“They say that because this was in the show and this is the first time they’ve heard of it outside the doctor’s office, it made them feel really good and it inspired them. Those messages really inspired me and made me feel good and appreciate the Duffers even more. I look up to them like they’re my older brothers. I mean, they’re just great guys. They inspired a lot of people to come out of their shells and embrace what they have.”"

Luckily, this presented an opportunity for Matarazzo to draw more attention to his disability. And while the Duffer Brothers didn’t originally include it with the character, Matarazzo impressed them so much (more on that later), they developed a character who tackled it right in the first episode.

And he continues to tackle it, which is awesome.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLlYga8B7C0/?taken-by=gatenm123&hl=en

And yes, I have one of those sweatshirts. It’s even comfier than you can imagine and goes to a good cause.