Peggy O'Neill of Ojai walks in small shoes but teaches lessons, values as big as life.

At 3 feet 8 inches, Peggy O'Neill is walking tall.

A self-described "life coach," with a background in psychotherapy, the 45-year old Ojai resident is using her people skills to teach others that they don't have to be held back by "inner smallness."

"When I talk to adults, I call it inspirational speaking," O'Neill said. "With younger children I call it diversity education. I tell them, 'You can be unique and different and still have a normal life."

As a motivational speaker for students, organizations and teen leader groups, O'Neill offers a variety of topics in the areas of celebrating diversity, personal empowerment and overcoming challenges.

Children of elementary school age, it seems, are among her most receptive audiences. According to Susan Brown, PTA assembly chair for Poinsettia School in Ventura, the kids who attended O'Neill's Dec. 11 talk were fascinated by the wisdom she imparted.

"Her message was basically about being big on the inside. She tells kids about how people are all the same, but different," Brown said. "She went through her life story and it was so touching. It was one of the most moving assemblies I've ever seen. For a little person, she just exudes bigness."

During her talk, O'Neill presented a, slide show picturing her and her husband, 30-year-old actor Brad Laise, doing everyday household chores.

"I show the way we use stools in our kitchen, how we drive with pedal extensions -- adaptations that little people use so that we can function in a world built for average-sized people," O'Neill said.

She eventually leads the children into a discussion about kindness by using examples from her own life and by asking her audience if they'd ever been teased or had been excluded from a sport or sleepover.

"It was amazing how many kids raised their hands," said Bradley Baker, principal of Lang Ranch School in Thousand Oaks, which also had O'Neill as a guest speaker. "It was all about sensitizing them to being aware of others' feelings."

O'Neill also explained there is a correct way to address a person like her.

"She talked about what little people to be called and how some terms are actually derogatory even if you don't mean it that way," Baker said.

The matter-of-fact O'Neill is quick to explain the current term for people of her size is "little people" or "people of short stature."

"When you are talking about a person about their dwarfism or in a medical sense, we do use the word 'dwarf,' " she said. "But when people say, 'I knew a midget,' it's not (politically correct). I try to educate people about that."

O'Neill also employs visual imagery to get seminar attendees to feel good, not only about others but about themselves. 

PROPS:  a pink and green wig and giant sunglasses are among the visual aids Peggy uses to illustrate to students attending her programs the rainbow of differences among all people.

"A story I tell in every speech -- in my children's talk, in my longer adult talks and to teens -- is a personal experience I had where I closed my eyes and saw a diamond inside my body. I describe it very poetically in the speech and then I tell the audience, 'At that time, I knew that I was as precious as the huge diamond, despite what other people thought,' " she said. "And then I draw the analogy to them and I encourage them to go inside and see their diamond. I think everybody is essentially good, it's just a matter of how often we take the time to stay in contact with that."

After her lectures, she opens up the floor to questions from the children. One of the most unique queries, she said, was from a child who asked if there were times when she wished she weren't a little person.

"I said, 'Yes, every time I go to the kitchen and I need something out of the upper cabinets; every time I want to rent a car; and every time I want to hug someone who is standing up,' " O'Neill said. "But I have the attitude that, yeah, I wish it, but it's not like it gets me down."

From Ohio to Ojai

Born in Ohio to parents of average size, O'Neill has two sisters of average size and a brother who is of short stature.

She visits her family a few times a year but prefers the gentler weather of scenic Ojai.  She and her husband moved here from Boulder, Colo., because the altitude created health problems for Brad, who has a respiratory condition from having large lungs and a small rib cage. O'Neill, however, has suffered no medical side effects from being a little person.

"There are over a hundred types of dwarfism and each one comes with its own package of problems. I got the A-1 model -- my model has no physical problems. I've never been in the hospital; I haven't had to have special doctors."

Despite her good health and self-confidence, O'Neill still encounters some prejudice.

People who are short get teased, -- especially men. There's a stigma around it socially -- but it's different to be short than it is to be a little person," she said. "For little people, there's just this stamp that, 'You're not as good as we are.'"

O'Neill is trying to dispel this way of thinking by writing her second book, "Walking Tall," which has the working subtitle, "Overcoming Inner Smallness and the Fear of Being Huge."

Soon, O'Neill's first tome, a children's book called "Little Squarehead," will be released by the Bellevue, Wash.-based publishing house Illumination Arts.

"It's about a little girl who has a square head and when she starts to come to terms with her situation, she is gifted with courage, confidence and compassion," O'Neill said. 

Applying her brand of inspirational education, O'Neill hopes to be a positive influence on children while they are still young enough to learn from it.

"When I go to a school I give them feedback forms. The kids write me incredible things," she said. "They say, 'I'm not going to be mean to anybody anymore' and, 'I'm going to treat people the way I want to be treated.' Mostly, they say they like me and respect me and they acknowledge how much courage I have."