He’s an actor, a teacher and president of Little People of America. He’s facing life as a single father after his wife, Anu, died in a car accident a year and a half after the birth of their daughter. Mark Trombino talks about Motivational Small Talk (his anti-bullying program), embracing differences and the utter joy of being 3-year-old Priya’s dad.

On what to call him: Little person, yes. Midget, no.

You could poll 100 little people and some would say short-statured, some would say dwarf, some would say little people. Any of those are acceptable. The only one that’s considered derogatory now is midget.

Dwarfism happens.

Both of my parents were average-sized and I have two sisters who are averaged-sized. Genetically, it’s what is called a random genetic mutation. There’s no family history of dwarfism in my family. There’s no drug that my mom took during pregnancy. It just happened.

How he knew he was different.

I was at the public library — here in Phoenix, on Seventh Street and Dunlap-ish. And I remember a couple of kids coming up to me and pointing, and staring, like there was something funny behind me. But it was me they were staring at. That was my first memory of being cognitively aware that I was the one that was different.

On getting beat up.

I remember being beat up when I was in third grade, when I transferred schools. I don’t know if it was that I was a little person, or that I was the new kid. But what I remember more is the teasing. Name calling — “shorty,” whatever — different names.

On kids and teasing.

Kids get teased no matter what. I think sometimes people dwell on the fact that just because she’s a little person, or because she’s got Down syndrome — but kids will pick on kids because they have blond hair, or because they pick their nose, you know, whatever it is.

On taking his message to classrooms through Motivational Small Talk.

Because of my stature, people really listen to me. And I am able to command and demand a lot of respect. I want to open kids’ eyes to embrace differences, rather than point them out. There are more similarities to us than there are differences. And that’s really what my message is: Yeah, we’re all different. But different is good.

What parents can do when a child feels left out.

First, I just encourage parents to accept who their kids are, and not try to change them. Encourage them to be open-minded and as friendly as possible. And that will attract friendships for their kids, and they’ll be more accepted.

On the decision to have a child.

Some people thought we were nuts! I’m thinking we were two of the shortest parents ever to reproduce. We met with a genetic counselor and talked about the risks and what would be involved. But we both really, really wanted a family. And we decided to roll the dice. Anu was able to go almost to 37 weeks of pregnancy. Prya was four pounds, five ounces, and only stayed in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for about 10 days, which is pretty good.

One thing he misses about Anu.

I miss her guidance. She was a very, very intelligent woman, and very driven to make Priya succeed.

On his dreams for Priya.

She loves to sing and play the piano—I mean not really play, but we have a keyboard that she bangs on. She is a really easy-going kid and likes to be around people. I want to expose her to lots of things—to sports, and music, and theater—and let her choose where her life goes.

On fatherhood.

It’s by far the best thing in my life. Hands down. Kids are a pain in the butt. They’re expensive, they wake up all hours of the morning, but I would never change it for the world. I absolutely love being a dad. It’s by far the most rewarding thing in my life.