One of the most painful memories of Vincenzo Schettini it dates back to adolescence, when the French teacher mocked him in front of the class by saying that he looked like “a mazzacano” because of his thinness. «He made me feel terrible because he denigrated me in front of everyone, making me feel inadequate. Today, with all the attacks and the rush for likes and comments on social media, I don’t really know what it means to be a teenager, and that’s why I feel I have to explain to them how to look inside themselves to motivate them”, says Schettini, who, in fact, he chose to follow that mission through several avenues. That of teaching as a part-time physics teacher at school; that of the Internet, through the publication of videos on its page The physics we like – more than 600 thousand subscribers on YouTube and 1.9 million followers on Instagram -; that of publishing, gods theater tours and, now, television. From 16 April in the late evening Vincenzo Schettini is, in fact, at the helm on Rai2 with The physics of lovea program in which the speaker explains to young people how to courageously face the emotional challenges of life through physics experimentsthe testimony of young people who had the courage to talk about a particularly intense moment of theirs, and several guests – from Big Mama to the French Saints, from Giuseppe Pirozzi to Claudio Cecchetto – who shared moments that helped them grow into who they are now.
Does television scare you or electrify you?
«It certainly excites me because it is an additional communication channel, and I am aware of having an audience very similar to that of television, given that it spans different age groups. At the presentations there is always the boy who comes up to you and tells you that he got an 8 thanks to my videos, but also the mother, the grandfather, the grandmother and the child. Having said that, I think that TV is based on old patterns in terms of broadcasting, so I’m happy that Rai has taken a step further, breaking the ceremonial that always revolves around the same programmes. In general one doesn’t dare, but now Rai is doing it.”
What would Rai be daring with you?
«In promoting a format that had never been seen before and which managed to combine education with entertainment. Furthermore, we will use physics to explain human concepts such as pressure which often, in everyday life, corresponds to expectation, anxiety, the family that surrounds us, the choices we make that are not shared, the doubts that we have”.
What relationship do you have with feelings, are you able to talk about them or do you tend to protect them?
«Since I started talking about it I have changed, and this has done me good. I started doing it on YouTube almost four years ago, publishing a video on Fridays in which I don’t deal with physics but talk about happiness, life choices, homosexuality, university orientation, study methods, anxiety, the judgment of others. Why did I mention it? Because I’m in therapy with myself. When we are able to be vulnerable, we are able to show our weaknesses because we share them with others who begin to be more inclined to listen and be more collaborative. However, it wasn’t easy, it was hard especially in my post-adolescent years, like when I came out to my parents in years when it wasn’t easy to talk about something like that.”
She was 19 and her father advised her to talk to an expert about it.
«Probably if I had been a father in the late nineties I would have reacted the same way. Why? For protection, because parents want to protect us at all costs and, at that moment, my father must have thought that mine was a choice and not a condition. Many things have changed in the meantime, even if this does not mean that we have overcome the typical conflicts that occur within a family unit over not understanding what is going on in one’s child’s head. When the latter opens there will be some lacerations, but then it will start again and it will always be better than living in silence.”
Vincenzo SchettiniEleonora Ferretti
Why, at 19, did you feel the urge to talk to your parents first about such a delicate thing rather than having your own experiences first?
«Maybe I was looking for confirmation. From my point of view it was important to say this because, when I talked about myself and began to express it, I hadn’t done anything. I saw my classmates who had girlfriends and I wanted one too, not to mention that I’ve always had a bad relationship with myself, with my body and with my image. I saw myself as uglier than others, thinner, an ugly duckling. This is why it was much more important to say it than not do it, because I would never have had the courage to do anything: my experiences came later.”
Was it she who felt different or was it others who made her feel that way?
«When I was a teenager, I was made aware of the fact that I was thin. Relatives told me to eat and I did, only I didn’t gain mass and I always felt judged for it. In those years I was looking for contact like everyone else, but I saw myself as ugly. I was never bullied, but I felt isolated. My friends always tell me that when I got to high school I looked like a character straight out of the book Heartwith these glasses and this skinny physique, a sort of manga.”
How did you react to that sense of isolation?
«Trying to be funny about the situation, the one with the ready joke. It was lucky I wasn’t shy: that saved me. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I tried to show some beautiful characteristics of myself and this made the difference. Inertia didn’t win, as physics would say, but motion won, as Einstein would say.”
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