Like any teenager, she feels self-conscious about it. It sounds, Samantha says, 'older.' Samantha is only 17, and the sound of the voice - deep, methodical, mature - doesn't exactly align with her sense of herself. It's not just that the voice is artificial and disjointed. 'Because weird,' Samantha says of the mechanical voice - speaking in the voice itself.

Apparently, as she explains to her mother, this is because Samantha has some reservations about the voice itself - the cold metal sound of it.

Her mother has noticed that when the family goes out to restaurants, Samantha prefers to write out her menu choices. The voice, one of several types on the market, is called 'Heather.' That's a nice enough name - easygoing and accessible - but Grimaldo doesn't like to use the voice if she can help it. She types into a special program on an iPhone or iPad, and a synthesized voice in the program says the words aloud. Today, fortunately, Samantha's voice takes up much less space. The poor thing had to carry this back and forth to school every day on the bus.' It was miserable having to lug her voice around that way - a clunky box sitting on the seat next to her. 'She used to have to carry this device around that was at least 4 or 5 pounds,' Ruane says, 'and she was only, like, 70 pounds herself. Ellen Webber for NPR The text-to-speech iPhone app that Samantha Grimaldo uses has three voice options for her to choose from.

Text to speech paul voice