An aunt is encouraging her toddler niece to embrace her strong "Italian American" accent - despite trolls saying "it's a shame she sounds unintelligent". <br /><br />Elaina Christina, 24, speaks with an Italian-American twang and was sent to elocution lessons as a child - where she was told to drop her "thick New Jersey accent". <br /><br />When her niece, Giavanna, two, started showing off her accent, she felt "proud" and has started giving her daily affirmations so she'll never lose it. <br /><br />Elaina, a credit processor, from Monmouth County, New Jersey, US, said: "I feel so proud that Giavanna is embracing her natural accent - she has such a sense of confidence.<br /><br />"Her favourite word to say by far is 'coffee' - we always make her a baby coffee, using decaf tea and hot milk, and she's constantly asking for a baby coffee in a strong, New Jersey accent. <br /><br />"It's obvious she's being raised by Italian Americans living in New Jersey - she's not going to shy away from that." <br /><br />Elaina first noticed Giavanna’s accent three months ago, when she asked for a piece of chocolate. <br /><br />She excitedly told her mum, Phyllis, 58, an insurance case manager, and sister, Carissa, 30, a developmental psychologist - and neither registered the tot even had an accent. <br /><br />“I told my mum,” Elaina said.<br /><br />“And she was like - accent? What accent?<br /><br />“We’re so used to the way we all speak - it’s understandable they hadn’t noticed.” <br /><br />Elaina says it's important the family keep encouraging Giavanna’s accent - after she lost her own following elocution lessons at the age of nine. <br /><br />As an aspiring child actor, she claims she was told by "countless" producers she'd never make it in showbiz if she didn’t drop her accent. <br /><br />She says people also assumed she was unintelligent due to her accent - so she was taught to speak in standardised American English - similar to received pronunciation in the UK. <br /><br />She said: “When I first went to acting school at nine years old, they put me into dialect classes because I had such a thick New Jersey accent. <br /><br />“They taught me to permanently speak in a traditional American dialect - I completely lost my accent.”<br /><br />After discovering Giavanna’s accent, Elaina decided to post a TikTok testing the tot with different words.<br /><br />While most people encouraged her to be proud of her accent, trolls also said the two-year-old seemed "dumb".<br /><br />Elaina added: “We got a lot of positive feedback, and it encouraged a sense of pride in other people’s accents - not just ours. <br /><br />“But a lot of comments said things like ‘it’s such a shame she’s going to be looked at as unintelligent when she’s older'.<br /><br />“Such shocking things to say about a baby, but we ignore it, because you’ve got to take pride in where you’re from.”<br /><br />Elaina, Phyllis and Carissa each make sure they never miss Giavanna’s daily affirmation - so she’ll grow up embracing her heritage. <br /><br />“We teach her to say - ‘I’m so gorgeous'," Elaina said. <br /><br />“Enunciating gorgeous as much as she can.”
