Jack Averty: Go on, use your Ed - Dare to be different or is that weird?

It is, of course, easy for him to say, I'm not sure anyone else with dry wit and floppy ginger hair could get 16 songs in the UK's top 20.

In the clip from 2015, which I saw for the first time on social media (more on that later) this week, Ed was talking about his stutter as a child and how it's OK to be weird.

He mainly fixed his stutter by listening to Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP and learning every word – not exactly a doctor's prescription. But what about those who can't just pick up their favourite CD (probably Ed's Divide) and be cured?

Well he told the audience: "Just be yourself, embrace your quirks – being weird is a wonderful thing."

His comments about no one being able to be a better you may be construed as arrogant, but really he is right about being yourself.

Children and teenagers face a horrible time of things growing up at the moment, and that is mainly down to social media.

You need loads of Facebook friends, a certain amount of Twitter followers, more than 100 likes on your best Instagram photo and a high Snapchat score. If you don't? Weird.

Don't spend your life on social media? Weird. Don't like football? Weird. Don't drink alcohol underage? Weird. Don't like the latest Calvin Harris banger? Weird. Don't have your hair cut like Joey Essex? Weird. The list is endless.

Basically if you do not like or look like what the majority of other people like – weird.

I caught the back end of this in my teenage years but social media has exploded since then and it has become even more difficult for those growing up.

It's just wrong though isn't it? Think of it the other way round.

Getting the same haircut as the rest of your school? Weird.

Hanging around on street corners drinking underage? Weird.

Only listen to chart music that's made in 2017? Weird.

Really this notion of being weird should be levelled the other way around.

Or, alternatively, just stop using it. It's not weird to like what most other people like, nor is it weird to like things that are slightly off piste. Society needs both to function.

What kind of world would we live in if all people did was eat the same food, watch the same films, listen to the same music, drive the same cars?

Answer: a weird one.

On top of creating this warped world, you are also going to create a grossly unhappy one. People cannot be forced into liking or not liking something. This is a free society with choices abound, not George Orwell's 1984. How are children going to be happy if they are not doing what they want for fear of being called weird or different?

It's tough though, and stereotyping people as weird who do not like what you like is a hard thing to shake.

I like to think I'm pretty open minded and do not judge a book by its cover but this past weekend, on a trip to glorious Liverpool, I was staying in a hotel opposite the Echo Arena where Comic-Con was taking place.

There were people dressed as all sorts, from Deadpool to Disney Princesses. They all seemed to be having the time of their lives but do you know what I thought when I saw them? 'Bit weird'.

It isn't though. They love these characters, dressing up as them and meeting like minded people. They are doing what they enjoy, why is that weird?

I enjoy wasting my life away playing Fifa on my Playstation, they probably think that's incredibly weird.

I'm sure these people could not care less that my first instinct was to brand them as weird, but I care.

The stereotyping is a major part of the problem. Many are thick skinned and will laugh it off, they have heard it all before.

But what about those who are just discovering that actually chart music and hipster hair (one colleagues description of the popular shaved sides and floppy top) is not for them?

Being branded weird or different at a young age can have a lasting and damaging effect. Not only is it not fair being labelled like this, it just isn't true.

Another passage from Ed's speech at the 9th Annual American Institute for Stuttering Benefit Gala read: "I think the one thing I want to say is be yourself, embrace yourself, embrace your quirks, and embrace your weirdness."

And that encapsulates it all really. People are going to be different and that is a great thing. They should not be made to feel bad about it, or that it is somehow wrong. They should learn to love who they are, how they act and what they enjoy. On top of this, society needs to learn to love its differences as well.

Of course, like everything, there needs to be limits. One colleague told me this week that you can cook fish in a dishwasher – and that is just plain weird.