Ed Sheeran was a ''very weird child''.

The 'Thinking Out Loud' hitmaker has urged people to embrace their ''quirks and weirdness'' as it is a ''wonderful thing''.

Speaking at the American Institute for Stuttering's Freeing Voices Live Benefit Gala, he said: ''I was a very, very weird child ... Even if you have quirks and weirdness, you shouldn't be worried about that ... One of the cool kids from school now does my plumbing! That's a fact!

''If you try to be the cool kid in class, you'll end up very boring and doing plumbing for someone who apparently wasn't that cool. Be yourself. Embrace your quirks. Being weird is a wonderful thing ... I have a f***ing football team now, that's pretty cool!''

The 24-year-old singer also opened up about how rapping along to Eminem helped cure his stutter.

He shared: ''I had a port-wine stain birthmark on my face that I got lasered off when I was very young; one day, they forgot to put the anaesthetic on, and ever since then, I had a stutter.

''My Uncle Jim told my dad that Eminem was the next Bob Dylan - it's pretty similar, it's all just storytelling - so my dad bought me The Marshall Mathers LP when I was 9 years old, not knowing what was on it. I learned every word of it, back to front, by the time I was 10. He raps very fast and melodically and percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter.''