Lennox Clark enjoys going on Instagram, taking photos, and he is very good at drawing.
He lives in Whangarei with his mum and nana and has 11 pets — two dogs, five chickens, three cats and a rabbit.
He's like any other 12-year-old boy — his friends will tell you that — he just communicates differently.
His hands show his words and his facial expressions show the tone he is talking in.
Lennox was born profoundly deaf. He received a cochlear implant before starting school which was followed by months of auditory/verbal therapy - all unsuccessful, so Lennox is now a user of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).
He has a teacher aide named Nadia Petersen who is also a NZSL communicator and has known Lennox since he was 4.
She helps interpret for him but because room 3 at Whangarei Intermediate School – Lennox's class – have been learning NZSL he can talk to some students without going through Nadia.
When one pupil approached Lennox and talked to him in NZSL he wrote a poem about it called "The Best Day of My Life".
He smiles when asked about it.
"That day a student approached me and said 'hi, how are you' and fingerspelt their name. I felt excited and happy, it made me feel really good," he says.
Fingerspelling is when a person uses the NZSL alphabet to spell.
Lennox thinks his classroom shouldn't be the only one learning sign language, he thinks all schools should.
"If a deaf student came to the school and if the teachers can't sign, or the student can't sign, the student might feel a bit frightened and confused."
Nadia filled the position as an educational support worker for one hour a day for six months when Lennox was 4, and has been his fulltime teacher aide since Lennox started school.
She says there is no funding for Lennox to have a fulltime interpreter which means technically his teacher aide could be someone who did not know NZSL.
When Lennox is asked how he would learn if he didn't have Nadia interpreting, he says he wouldn't.
"My brain would be confused like a baby's," he says.
When someone uses NZSL to talk to Lennox his eyes light up.
Nadia says this year has been the first year he has been able to talk to other pupils using sign.
"He's developed an identity. He's just so much happier, he feels involved, his confidence is so much better and that's all from having other children to sign to him and he can sign back," she says.
His classmates say when they talk to Lennox they use sign language, but when they don't know a word they fingerspell it or ask Nadia or Zethan Gray how to sign that word.
Zethan has known Lennox since he was 4 and has been learning sign language since he was in Year 1.
Nadia says learning sign has extended outside of room 3. Half the school has learned the national anthem in sign language and she's made stickers with signs on them and placed them around the staffroom.
Lennox's friends say if people don't know how to speak to a deaf person, waving was a good first step.
"Even though he's deaf once you learn sign language and you get to know him he's quite nice and he's no different to one of us," 12-year-old Carys Reed says.
If there's one thing Lennox wants people to know about deaf people it's this: "Deaf people are not stupid, they need to feel respected and people need to learn more sign language so maybe if they meet a deaf person and realise they're deaf they can sign to them and make that deaf person feel welcome."
The Best Day Of My Life a poem by Lennox Clark
Finally, someone at school talked to me in NZSL!
In my language. I can't believe it happened to me!