famous omen with dyslexia

10 Famous Women With Dyslexia

by

Last Updated on October 7, 2023 by Editorial Team

Without appropriate help and instruction, dyslexia can frequently leave enthusiastic students feeling unsure and insufficient. In spite of challenges in reading, many have paved their way to success and have become great CEOs and scientists. 

That is on the grounds that dyslexia isn’t an incapacity; rather, it is an alternate approach to handling language in the mind due to the different brain wiring. It additionally accompanies positives, like enhancing imagination and creativity, along with critical thinking. And that’s the reason why successful dyslexic people have often used their creative brains to show the world their personality and talent.

Indeed,  the world’s most influential performers and change-makers have imparted their own battles to the learning incapacities. It’s quite insightful and inspirational to know about their success stories – for how they utilized their various capacities to make themselves unique from the rest.

Here is how these 10 famous women with dyslexia figured out how to beat their battles and tackle their solidarity.

List of famous women with dyslexia

1. Erna Solberg – Prime Minister of Norway

Erna Solberg was chosen as the Prime Minister of Norway in 2013 and has been filling in as the head of the Conservative Party beginning around 2004. She was diagnosed with dyslexia at 13 years old. She’s forever been open regarding her dyslexia and the deep-rooted battle related to it.

Erna once stated to the local, a European news network that she suffered from dyslexia. Adding to this, she also says “I am dyslexic and I write it myself.”

Albeit not the ideal student on paper, Solberg didn’t let that prevent her from dominating in school. She was known for being an active and chatty girl in her class with strong leadership abilities.

The pride and self-assurance she has while standing in opposition to her dyslexia show her inspirational perspective, notwithstanding confronting these difficulties.

2. Salma Hayek

Brought into the world in Mexico, Hayek was diagnosed with dyslexia in her teenage. In spite of this, she had extraordinary achievements in school. Rather than completing school, Hayek moved to California to seek after acting, despite the fact that she could not communicate in English.

Hayek in an interview with Oprah said “I came here and I didn’t speak English, I didn’t have a green card, I didn’t know I had to have an agent, I couldn’t drive, I was dyslexic.” 

Even though she had Dyslexia, Hayek is viewed as one of the best and most successful entertainers in Hollywood. She had an intriguing remark that she might take more time to peruse scripts than her co-stars, yet she just necessities to peruse them once to get them.

Dyslexics are known to be creative, and that’s the reason why most people end up in creative fields, just like Salma Hayek. In a study[1] by Alice Cancer, it is concluded that students with dyslexia had a statistically significantly higher propensity for unusual combinations of ideas, which is an aspect of creative thinking.

3. Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldenberg, a comedian and an actress who has received an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Oscar Award, Whoopi is the first lady to get the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Self-analyzed as “abnormally slow,” Whoopi actually felt as though she could do anything because of the help of her mom.

In fact, she states how difficult it was to understand this learning disability during the early days as people did not have the knowledge as to what this condition was. Hence, people went and called her slow, retarted, and that was alone a battle to fight. 

The multi-skilled Goldberg didn’t discover she had dyslexia until well after she exited the school. She’s since procured huge loads of honors, including probably the most extraordinary blend of prestigious awards, making her an exemplary example that one can defeat dyslexia with perseverance and dedication. 

4. Cher

Cher, one of the world’s most loved and acclaimed performers, has battled with both dyslexia and dyscalculia, a learning condition that makes math extra challenging. In addition to the fact that words felt like another dialect, numbers additionally felt unfamiliar; she wrote in her autobiography, ‘The First Time.’ In the book, she also mentions how Instructors initially couldn’t sort out the thing that was keeping Cher down. However, they mentioned that she was not performing in her true capacity.

It wasn’t until she was at that point a mother of two that she found the wellspring of her learning troubles: dyslexia. In her self-portrayal, Cher said she had taken her child Chaz Bono, who was experiencing difficulty in reading, to a testing community when specialists told her he, as well, had the attribute. At last, the riddle started to come to fruition. She also mentions this in an interview. 

Yet, she’s figured out how to accept her dyslexia as something that makes her novel.

5. Caitlyn Jenner

Prior to her wedding to one of America’s most renowned families, Caitlyn Jenner was occupied with winning gold medals as an Olympic athlete – an accomplishment she credits to the lessons she learned in managing her dyslexia. In 1976, Jenner brought home the gold award for contending in the decathlon. With this, Caitlyn beat the common notion of how people with dyslexia can be inadequate in sports. 

Talking about her profession, achievements, and dyslexia, Jenner once said to a publication “On the off chance that I wasn’t dyslexic, I most likely wouldn’t have dominated the games.” She strongly believes that had she been a superior reader, sports would have come effectively.

However, Jenner went through broad preparation and groundwork for the Olympics, it was beating herself that at last assisted her with pushing through her battles.

6. Octavia Spencer 

Before Oscar-winning entertainer Octavia Spencer was showing the world the “hidden figures” in NASA, she was a young girl experiencing childhood in a humble community in Alabama. From the beginning, she realized she had trouble when it came to reading out loud – an issue that at first left her “deadened” with dread before her partners. She mentions these struggles to a media house in an interview. 

She was stifled with fear since she continued reversing words and dropping words. She once said – “On these grounds, I realize that I am a smart individual.” As a grown-up, as well as becoming probably Hollywood’s greatest star, Spencer has composed two books – a reality she’s exceptionally pleased and proud of, which is yet impacted by her dyslexia. One thing dyslexia doesn’t influence Spencer is her ability to be self-aware.

7. Ann Bancroft

Ann Bancroft is an Arctic traveler. She headed an all-lady group toward the South Pole in 1992, which makes her the first lady to go to both the North AND South Poles. As though that wasn’t rad enough, she then, at that point, collaborated with individual boss Polar wayfarer Liv Arnesen to sail and ski across Antarctica.

Her dyslexia and difficulties through school were indisputably the ideal preparation for her successful career. Women like Ann are live examples of how living and being successful with dyslexia is possible with spur and vigor. She states in an interview that her dyslexia is what pushed her to become the person she is now.

8. Florence Welch

The lead artist of “Florence + The Machine” was determined to have both dyslexia and dyspraxia (a coordination issue) in school. Her childhood challenges with learning have impacted her exceptional style; in both music and design today. 

To a leading media house, she conveys how she used to have regular checkups and special classes that helped her avidly during school. 

She had dyslexia, which caused her to feel unique in relation to every other person. As she progressed in years, she explored different avenues regarding her hair and sorts of garments, from Spice Girls to Little House On The Prairie styles.

9. Keira Knightley

Now a popular entertainer, as a young girl, Knightley battled with reading because of her dyslexia. In fact, she conveyed in an interview that when she was six, everyone thought she was a great reader. But the truth is that her mother used to read to her regularly, and Keira used to just memorize those books, and not read them. However, once when she was handed a book that her mother hadn’t read to her, that was the time when everyone got to know how she had difficulty in reading due to dyslexia. 

Keira has always been included in acting, and her learning disability is what pushed her creative buttons even more to make her the big star she is now. Despite her dyslexia, Keira paved her way to success to become the person she is now. 

10. Sally Gardner

Award-winning author Sally Gardner made a vocation out of the very thing she called her adversary for a really long time – words. Gardner has acute dyslexia and went through long stretches of early tutoring, unfit to read or compose. One of her initial instructors even called her ‘unteachable’.and ‘word blind.’

She states in an interview that it wasn’t until she signed up for an art school that her advantage in narrating and composing was supported. In this new school setting, Gardner both dominated at her examinations and reinforced what might encourage her future kids’ books – a clearly intelligent, creative mind.

However, having published award-winning books, such as ‘I Coriander and Maggot Moon,’ Gardner joyfully accepts that she has gone from “the dyslexic writer” to “a writer who turns out to be dyslexic.” She hasn’t halted there. Gardner has furthermore published numerous sonnets that address dyslexia. Her sonnet “The Box” remarks on both the disappointment and creative capacities of people with dyslexia, as well as the educational systems that overpower dyslexic kids into a rigid assessment situation that smothers their capacities.

Conclusion

Regardless of where you go on the planet, you will observe dyslexic people who have made progress in the creative fields, despite encountering challenges with reading and composing.

Regardless of whatever they were managing or going through, they tried and recollect that they were sufficiently able to conquer the world.

References:

  1. The alleged link between creativity and dyslexia: Identifying the specific process in which dyslexic students excel. (2016, May). Alice Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2016.1190309

Leave a Comment