ADHD, Dyslexia, and Seeing Things Differently | With Charlie Bentley-Beach

In this episode of Beyond The Studio, Hayley is joined by Charlie Bentley-Beach, mum of two, graphic designer, and founder of The Wonder Den and The Mill House.

Charlie shares her experience of being diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia in adulthood, and how that journey has shifted her understanding of herself, not as something limiting, but as something clarifying and empowering.

Together, they explore what it means to see neurodiversity through a different lens, and how reframing these experiences can change not only how we see ourselves, but how we support the next generation.

This conversation touches on:

• Late diagnosis and self-understanding
• The experience of navigating ADHD and dyslexia as an adult and a parent
• How shifting language and perspective can impact confidence and identity

It’s an honest, thoughtful conversation that offers reassurance, perspective, and a reminder that difference doesn’t have to mean limitation.

📚 Helpful resources mentioned:

• The Bigger Picture Book of Amazing Dyslexics and the Jobs They Do – Kate Power & Kathy Iwanczak Forsyth
• Xtraordinary People – Kate Griggs
• Rebel Girls Celebrate Neurodiversity
• ADHD or Dyslexia? Resilient Parents, Resilient Children – Katharine Aranda Vollmer

Workshops & events:
SPACE – https://spaceherts.org.uk/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Beyond the Studio. Today's episode is a really important one. I am joined by the wonderful Charlie Bentley Beach, mum of two beautiful girls, graphic designer, creative, business owner of the Wonder Den and the Millhouse. And today we're going to be talking about ADHD, dyslexia, and we're going to be talking. I love Charlie's story because the way she speaks about it is not a negative, it's about something empowering, clarifying, and even is positive. So today we're talking about awareness, we're talking about understanding and how we can start reframing labels like ADHD and dyslexia as strengths rather than limitations. So, Charlie, for anyone that doesn't know you yet, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Hi guys, so I am a graphic designer by kind of trade, as it were. So I went to art college and trained and did a degree in graphic design and then worked in London for many years working for design agencies, um, working my way up into a leadership role and then working crazy hours. Um kind of coming back at midnight, working on events um that uh were quite big launch events in London and things like that. So then I had Ottilie coming up to eight years ago, eight years ago next week, and um I was like, oh no, there's no way I can do that anymore. So then that's when I switched things up. So I now run the meal house in Hartford. Um, and I've been able to kind of work that around having Ottilie and Eadie and um uh also bringing in the creative kind of aspect with all the creative workshops um and still doing some freelance design stuff as well. So yeah, very flexible. I'm someone that loves variety, so um yeah, a whole kind of mix of different things, really.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Us creatives, like there's no week's ever the same, is it? That's that's the way we like it. Um, but you are incredibly creative and you have built such beautiful businesses. Where did that creative spark start for you?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

So I had lots and it was maybe I was two weeks in, she was two weeks old. Um, and I was like, I'm gonna set up a business. And Ben thought I was completely crazy. He's like, Where has this come from? You're on Matt Leave, can't you just chill out? Oh, we can't. I've got all this time now, like I'm so used to working 24 hour days, and now I'm here with her and like loving being with her, but also uh have so much going on in my mind while I'm feeding her and doing these things. So um I started writing a business plan while she had her little naps. Um, and then I would take myself off to business workshops and would pump my way through the workshop, leave her with Ben for a couple of hours and come back and um would just start building up the knowledge of trying to um the whole idea of running a business. Um and then the space below us became available, which is now the mill house today, um, where a lot of the dance classes are. Um, and we actually lived above it in a flat um on the industrial estate, which I'd never quite planned to be there that long. But um uh actually Ottie loved it and she was like, They're my neighbours, and um it was all part of her growing up, which was really interesting. But um, yeah, I was up there with her, the space below became available, and I was like, I'm having it. So I'd planned the meal house. Then it was coming towards the end of Matt Leave, and I start, I just had a little moment of do I do this, do I not? It was quite a big leap. Um, quitting a career that I'd worked really hard for, um, that obviously I'd trained really hard for, and um financially as well, that was a big thing. So I was like, right, I'm going on holiday, and then I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna have made the decision. And then my boss called me the day before I went, and he was like, Oh, by the way, we're closing the business. Um, and it was just the weirdest like moment. I just couldn't quite believe the timing. Um, and then it gave me no option. I was like, right, well, this feels so right, this is what I'm doing. And um, yeah, we um would renovate the space while Ot slept um over the summer, and then yeah, we opened in the autumn. So it was a bit of a whirlwind. It was definitely not a relaxing Mat Lee.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

What an alignment moment though, with your boss calling that you you being, you know, a bit a little bit in limbo, but then your boss calling you, and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, so we're just we're doing this, we're going for it.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I think that was the best kind of push. It was the push that I needed, and also the timing was so right that it just felt like I've I've got to give it a go. Um, and yeah, it just like stars align time type of thing, I guess. Um, so um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

That's amazing. And we'll we'll talk um more about the diagnosis and everything later, and you know, the main point of the topic. But how would you have described yourself pre-diagnosis or how your brain works? Obviously, incredibly creative, like you said, you're on Matt Leave, you can't switch the brain off. I fully relate to that because you just can't. Um so how would you describe like how your brain works in that way?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, so I feel like um I was writing some notes on it earlier, and I was describing it as almost like it's fizzing, like it never stops. There's so much going on, um, like millions of creatures running around or millions of tabs open, um, wanting to explore all these different things, do all these different things, um, feel like I have to achieve a million things in a day to my day to be worthwhile. All these, yeah, all these crazy things going on. Um, it's not a relaxing place to be.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Honestly, that's why I went to yoga. I was like, I still need something to regulate this mind of mine. Um yeah, it but but um it's an amazing way to think, absolutely. Like I said, it's just ne you never switch off, do you? Yeah. So what can you share about what led you to seek an ADHD in dyslexia assessment? What kind of led you to seek because you did that later in life, you didn't do that?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yeah, the dyslexia diagnosis, I was around 20, and then my ADHD diagnosis was a year ago, so really, really recent. Um it's been quite a lot's come out lately. Um, where it's like, oh, actually, is it a misdiagnosis or is it so there's so much more that's linked between dyslexia and ADHD that we know about now, which we didn't know about back in the day. So um it's really, really interesting time, actually. Um, so going back to school, I struggled at school, I struggled in every subject except art. I was a daydreamer, I um couldn't read. I they'd be like, right, it's time to um uh read the next chapter of a book. And you'd all sit there and I'd be looking around, going, God, how are they turning the page already? Focusing on everyone else, not being able to focus on the story, reading the page over and over again, feeling like an absolute failure. Um, and then there were things like um, I did two languages and I just felt looking back, that was so unnecessary. I barely could write English. Um uh at one point I went on a German exchange, which I loved, I loved all the kind of practical stuff, the location-based stuff. Um, did that and got my German pen pal to write my whole journal for me. And I designed it all up, spent hours making it look super cool, got back and then won first prize for the school. Um the first time I've ever won anything. First prize and like at the summer awards or whatever it was. And um, next minute I've been put in top set, German and French. Oh my goodness. I've accidentally got myself into this situation where I should not be, I should not be doing languages to start with, and I'm now in top set. I'm sat there copying everything from my friend next to me, trying to blag my whole way through it. Um, it was a real learning moment.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Maybe also an early indication of how good your design skills were.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Wow, yeah, true, true. Um, but it was also, yeah, a bit of a learning curve in that A, I need to speak up more and not let this happen again. And not that I I lied my way through it, I didn't personally kind of intend that to happen. I never knew that that was going to be a kind of knock-on effect of this award. And um, yeah, it just was a real kind of Ivaner. It um looking back now, I'm not quite sure how I did it, but um, I got through my GTSEs and then I actually was then sent to, I was always a number in the class, no one really knew who I was, no teacher. I wasn't, I wasn't really naughty, I wasn't the best at all. I was just sat in the middle and um kind of forgotten about. So then it got to A levels, and my parents scrimped and saved, and my grandma and put me into private school for two years. Um, and it totally changed me as a person. All of a sudden, I was in a class with six students. I couldn't hide, I had to speak up. Um, so that was a real kind of changing moment of um, I can't daydream here. I have to be switched on. It was really, really draining, really, really intense. Um, but it did help. And also it had the most amazing art block ever. And I could go down, I'd lit, I'd send spend my Sundays there. They used to put on all these afternoon tees. I was like, this is amazing.

unknown 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

So yeah, I used to just hang out there and kind of muddle through the rest of my A levels, and then um I did my art foundation, and then I started my design degree at Chelsea College of Art and was loving life until year two, where I had to write an essay and I failed it. And I thought, this is so unfair. Here we go again. It's my writing that's letting me down. Um, it's I'm here for a design degree. Why am I being marked on this?

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Like, right, I cannot fail this degree, I cannot let everyone down. I have to take myself down the corridor and get a diagnosis to get through the dissertation. Like, there's no way I'm gonna be right able to write 15,000 words. Um, yeah, I was like proper stressing about it. And then I took myself down the corridor, I remember it. I remember that day I got tested for dyslexia and actually dyspraxia without realizing it. Um and I then had so much amazing support. So the Sen team would sit down with me, I'd talk through my dissertation of having to write it. Um, I'd have a dictaphone, so it was all taken on a dictaphone, and then um they obviously gave me a computer and all the equipment with that special um kind of writing software and stuff like that. So I'd take the dictaphone and put it on the computer, and then would it load up with my dissertation? Um, and we worked like that basically, which was um amazing. I wouldn't have got my degree without that. So um I yeah, I think at that point I just felt really proud of myself that I'd gone and done it. Yeah, um and it really switched things up um within me. It gave me so much more self-respect and understanding, which was massive. Like I just before that, I just felt the classic failure, yeah, having to try and prove myself, trying to work extra hard on everything. Um, and all of a sudden I had this thing on paper that said I I have it and it's official, and it was so yeah, it was such a moment really. Um, so then I carried on up to um my yeah, just um went through my kind of design career and um all was fine. And then I had Edie, our second, yeah, and Edie was born with a clef lip and palette, and we had quite a lot of extra kind of um medical uh appointments and things to juggle with with her. Uh, plus we had Ottilie and it just became too much. I felt like this thing I'd been holding in all these years, I couldn't hold in any anymore. That fizzing brain was like going to overdrive. There'd be nights where I was literally curled up in a corner, not being able to sleep. I remember being like by the front door thinking, like, I just don't know how I can, I can't stop this brain. It was it was almost like um it being wired incorrectly or something had gone really wrong and it was just fizzing away, and it had yeah, just got to a real come to a real head on um kind of it, yeah, just being the worst it had ever been. And I was like, look, this is crazy. I I can't do this anymore. I'm I'm sure I'm ADHD and I need some therapy and support with this, along with everything with Ed. So that's when I took myself to the doctor and just had a verbal diarrhea moment of like, I've got this and listed off all the things that I've kind of held in all over the years. And uh she was like, right, okay, let's put you forward. Um and I went down the right to choose route. I went through um Psychiatry UK and I had to wait a year for the assessment, and then I had the assessment with a psychiatrist, and um he went through all the things. Firstly, he was like, Have you all passed have you got your passport? And I was like, No, is that a thing? I'd also read the email. So I um I'm sure from that moment he was like, Well, here we go. So yeah, he fired all the questions at me, and at the end he said, You have ADHD, and I was like, Well, are you sure? And he laughed at me. Yes, a hundred percent. Um, and um, you may want to consider medication, which was a uh quite a moment, really, because uh firstly having the it was kind of a similar feeling to the dyslexia, having that kind of realization that again, this is not a fault at all. Um, and it's just how my brain works. And then also the fact that medication is an option, which I've never even considered. Um, and I'm still on the wait list for that, and it's something I will be speaking to them about um and just finding out more about and seeing where I go and whether I do take it or not. But again, it's an option. Um, and I think coming up to um the menopause and things like that, you never know how things are gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Um yeah, that is yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

So, yeah, so that was my journey, really.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

And you've spoken about those emotions that came up for you, like almost that relief and that validation and like almost like that sense of, like you said, empowerment when you then suddenly were able to go, no, I can now finish my degree because I know I have this support. And I think sometimes getting diagnosis can one, it seems really scary to people, it can be scary to the parent, to the child if they're getting, you know, at the young age, or scary for the adult that goes, you know what, actually I I feel like I need to do this. But actually, you know, from what you're saying, it it is it is an it is a positive thing. And it, of course, it's gonna feel scary and you're gonna feel nervous of the result and what that may mean, but it actually gives you greater understanding of yourself, doesn't it? And how you can move forwards, you know, if it's a parent say that you know they're going to get it for their child, there's so much then support around that ways that because like you said, say if it turns out that you never got that dyslexia diagnosis, you could have failed your degree, you love and that would have caused you to regress, it would have caused you to have really low self-esteem, low self-confidence, you wouldn't have the the businesses maybe that you have now or gone down that successful career route. So it's looking at it and reframing it as yes, it may feel scary, but it's such a positive even if, yes, they do turn around and say, Yes, you are dyslexic, you are ADHD, that's not a negative thing at all. And I I think it's um it's really, really important that we talk about that because you know, I'm a parent now. I've you know, I'm very, very new to to motherhood and that whole journey, but I would feel nervous, you know, if I had to go and get Harvey a diagnosis just because I'd be thinking, okay, how do I support him? And you know, so but actually by having these conversations, it really helps people to settle that you know that feeling and know that actually it can do so much for them. So yeah, believe in that news. So did it change the way, you know, you spoke about some of the challenges you faced once you've received the ADHD, particularly, you know, as an adult, well, as an adult and ADHD, did it change the way you looked back at those challenges you faced?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah, so um I actually had some notes on that um here. So I it definitely made me re-look at myself in a completely different way. Um, and it also made me I'm quite um open. So if I say something random or do something or don't do something, or I kind of have that as my backup, uh, this is because of this, um, which I think is really important. Um, and then yeah, it made me realize how actually how many things are there are so many positives. Um there's uh and also it goes back to so I'm jumping around here a bit, but um it was things like uh people think I'm lazy, and then you get the diagnosis and you go, actually you're struggling with executive functioning, or they don't listen, but they process information differently, or they're disruptive and actually they're dysregulated, or they're um they're not trying, um, or they're behind, but they develop differently, and it's just all those little things, just reframing those kind of thought thoughts are so important, I think. Um, and there are so many strengths. Um, so with for me being creative, the um dyslexia thing um all around is so there's so I know so many creatives that are dyslexic. Um and actually it gives you this kind of creative thinking. Um, you're able to think out of the box, you've got great imagination, greater problem solving, um, have a bigger picture um of how um, so for instance, if I were given a design brief at work, I would approach it differently to others, maybe, um, which actually would be really valuable in how in us winning the pitch and having a different kind of thought process um going on. So things like that, um, it made me so determined. I think because I worked so so hard um as a child growing up, I um have always had to work hard to catch up with everyone. So actually working hard doesn't faze me at all, and I am quite can be quite stubborn and determined. Um, but there I think um it's you yeah, it's the not giving up, the being brave, mentally tough, all those things because of what you've been through for so many years. Um so there are so so many positives. I think with the ADHD thing, um I um I can be hyper-focused, um I which is great, especially in things I love, which is why running my own business is so good because it's um uh yeah, I it's something I want to be doing, um, which is great. So the hyper focus thing, um, and uh I wrote loads of others down. I'm just trying to have a look. Um yeah, thinking differently to uh to others, reading the room differently as well, and being quite emotionally in tune is really, really handy. Having that high energy and enthusiasm, making things feel fun and alive, and especially when I was um leading a team, that was really important. Um and happy to take risks. I don't really, I have a really poor memory and I'm slow to process. And I actually think that helps me not overthink things.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

So um actually almost it's like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Not all the time. There are moments obviously when that does happen, but when I set up um the mealhouse, I didn't, I was like, no, I'm doing it. I don't there was nothing that there was that moment of like be sensible about this. Are you doing the right thing? But um yeah, I think actually that that's a has really worked in my favor. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Everything you said, I I shared with you before. I've never had official diagnosis myself, but I have my suspicions. Um be really interested to know. But everything you've described is, and I really think it is common in the creative industry. I do not to say everyone, you know, everyone's the same, but that you know, that hyper focus, that being able to read a room, being able to just that energy that you create. Because I was similar, I just I was that kid, I could not sit still. I found it really, really hard to concentrate, and unless it was something I loved, like I had. you know, it was kind of like all infamy. And I was actually, I've spoken about this before, but I was actually told I had this calculus. Ah yeah. It was I and I felt really embarrassed about at the time I, you know, it was on the I was in the bottom set of maths. And it really affected actually decisions I made. So I was told that and you know I was very I my defence mechanism is I make a joke out of things I was like, oh you know, bottom set, whatever. And you know, my family would vouch for the fact that I was just a super hyper child. I just I was always moving. But when I when I had that that kind of it wasn't even a diagnosis, a label almost that said you've got to do business. It was then as I grew up, I I kind of always doubted myself slightly of like, oh well I couldn't run a business because that involves numbers and oh I couldn't take business for A level because that involves numbers or I really love psychology. And I remember thinking, oh, but that doesn't really align. And actually like you said it's sometimes it's flipping on its head and going, no, maybe I'm not good at you know mental math or if somebody just throws things at me or asks me to do an equation even if you ask me now to like do my times tables I probably will get it wrong. But if I apply it to something I love, I'm not bad at it. And I think that I always say that to the kids or all the kids that we teach I'm always saying to them like you know find the thing you love when you imply the things that are difficult to you to the thing that you love, you'll find it almost becomes a whole lot easier because it I don't know it's differently in your brain.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

But yeah also to remember that not no one's good at everything. No you're always there's always going to be something that's you find harder. And I remember with going back to the business thing and the whole numbers invoicing trying to be organized trying to get some money in things like that that are fairly essential to running a business. And I ended up bringing in um Elaine who helps me out um she's a VA so a virtual assistant but she's amazing. She's become a really good friend and um she's there as such a brilliant support in that area where I really struggle. So I think that's the other thing of being like actually no I'm not great at that there are far more way more peep many people out there that um have those skills why not bring them in and then you've got the time to do the bits that you do enjoy. I think also you then start resenting bits if you're doing things you don't like and um or you're really struggling. So I think that's we can't be good at everything.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

No basically can't all be good at everything can we? And it's like you said that's so so important. And there are other people that can do those bits and that's what teamwork is all about. Yeah exactly yeah yeah it's so so true. So with um obviously with your understanding now and you know and I know you still educate yourself a lot on it and you're still learning what do you wish people understood more maybe about neurodivergent brains and how they work what do you wish other people understood more I think it's really hard at the minute and I've been kind of going back and forth on it um with the whole so there's this whole thing about the diagnosis and how there's so much more diagnosis happening now than ever before.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Yeah. But it's become becoming such a clearer understanding of um we're we're gathering up so much more information than we ever had. So there's this whole thing of jumping on the bandwagon and um uh and and joining everyone else with all these different labels yeah um and I feel so strongly about that I think that actually um yeah there is a bit of that but it's all in a positive sense it's like I the other thing I really struggle with is mentally it's not a visual thing. Yeah. So I think people really struggle with that. So Edie with her cleft diagnosis very visual she has a set pathway it's all kind of in place people can physically see it and understand it. With uh someone who has a neurodivergent brain that is not visual and and it's less understood um and less accepted in some ways um and I just think that it needs flipping on its head um the neurodivergency understanding um there was a really good and this is what sparked our conversation with it um there was a really good snippet from really random I don't know how I came across it um Alex George the doctor who's done a lot around mental health he was on Lorraine and did a clip about um how he's now been diagnosed I think with autism um and how it's enabled him to accept himself for who he is and understand himself better and he's a similar age to me um and just seeing that and also seeing his stats on actually yes more people are being diagnosed with these things but compared to the millions of people in the in the country that is really really small um so it's definitely one to go and have a look at but um that's yeah that really related and kind of resonated and I um I just feel for me to understand myself better to then hopefully then be a better parent to the girls um and then potentially to um understand them better if they were to have anything um kind of along the similar lines um and also to be quite open about it. So um Ottilie and I are quite different. So she loves routine um and um I'm rubbish with routine it's something I've had to really learn since having them um and really and Ben's the same we've really had to um kind of switch things up to slot in um and yeah it's interesting so she'll be like oh mum why have you interrupted me again and I'm like oh actually Ottie this is something I can't help and it's to do with I'm really really trying don't get me wrong but it's to do with my brain and how my brain works um and then she'll say things like oh I'll tell her what we're doing she's like but you're not going to change the route the routine or the plan and I'm like I'm really gonna try not to but again it's something that I is a real challenge of mine and I'm just really really open like obviously to a certain extent um but open with them and so hopefully they have the understanding that everyone's new unique everyone has um brains that work differently and um yeah I think um hopefully then they'll be kinder on themselves and it will have a knock-on effect in that sense but um yeah I yeah yeah I guess it you're right though just awareness in general communication conversation it just helps people to respond with compassion doesn't it and it helps just that understanding rather than frustration or you know feeling anxious about it or stressed or if if we just have that conversation you know there's like you said there's that awareness around it so um if so if a young person is listening and feels different but they can't explain why or maybe there's you know a parent who's you know noticing that their child is struggling with something what what would you say to them? Have you got any kind of tangible piece of a pieces of advice or anything that has really supported your understanding along the way yeah I think um I think I'm sort of hyper vigilant really because of my if I'd had my dyslexia diagnosis earlier then it would have massively helped me um and I so if if Ottlee or Edie were ever to have anything I think I would be um a lot more open to um kind of understanding it more. So I yeah I'd say it's really scary and like we were saying just before the thought of having to put a child through anything like that and as a parent that's really hard like you first you've got to accept it and then you have to yeah bring in different strategies and alter the way you parent um and um I just think it's so worth it though. It's so it's so important that um it's is accepted and um the child is supported as much as they can be. I think the schools are starting to get a bit better at it as well. I think definitely learning from Edie and everything she's been through that actually I I'm happy to stand up for them if I have to be whereas before I'd be I was always like oh no everything's fine let's just crack on and be happy. The kids were polite you know where we're like oh that's okay. Yeah it's so true. Whereas now I'm like oh hang on a minute I'm not sure about that like she had an audiology test once and it was we wasn't we weren't sure about it and then six months later we received a letter saying the um whole department being closed down and they were reviewing all the cases and I think as a parent you have that gut feeling of like oh hang on a minute let's question that um and I'm so glad I have done that and I don't mind now being a little bit disruptive in that sense for the better if you know what I mean. So yeah I it just gave it if I'd had the diagnosis earlier it would give me so much more confidence and understanding from teachers and parents and things like that. And also I would have probably reduced my time tailwheel down. I wouldn't be doing the languages especially not in top set and um I uh I would be focusing on the things that I were a lot better at which would have helped me so much. So yeah it's a really tough one. It's um and it's not an easy route at all. And I know a lot's changing um there's over the next few years can be really really interesting to see how um it the neurodivergency thing develops um and there's a lot of money that's being put into it and so I'm really really hoping that wait lists and things do come down.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

But um yeah I yeah it is a tough one but and you shared with me um before about some books that which I'll put I'll put them in the show notes but you have books that um really helped you and you really you know that were that were worth maybe mentioning but I'll I can put them in the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Yeah I with with books is um going back to when I was a child I loved picture books and then as soon as the pictures disappeared and it was full on chapters I uh would not read them I and I really really struggled and now we've got audiobooks which is incredible um but um it's really interesting because now Ottley's into chapter books and I'm having to man up a bit and be like to read this with you and I feel like I'm kind of re-yeah kind of revisiting that whole thing again it's really interesting as like a full circle thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

And better understanding I guess as well without that panic it's oh I understand why you know I have been a you know an avoidance to this or yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Yeah and interestingly she'll pick up on things or oh there's a really funny moment where my mum came to stay and Ottilie had a reading book and I was reading it but I really struggled to pronounce names of people and um uh so I'd been reading it to her pronouncing these names how I thought they were and then my mum was reading it and Ottie was like Omar you've pronounced that wrong that's not how you say the name and Omar was like no no that is definitely how you say the name and it's because I've been saying it wrong um so poor she yeah picks up on my spelling mistakes and things like that is really funny. But just going yeah linking back to the books thing um there's a really lovely picture book called Extraordinary People um which is great for dyslexics who don't like um words um and it's great for the younger for the for younger children so that's a fab one the one I loved when I was a bit older so um it really inspired me I wish I'd had it as a teenager um it was called the bigger picture book by amazing dyslexics and the jobs they do by Kate Power and she has created this amazing picture book but full of um kind of famous people and some are celebrities some are famous engineers or architects or designers um and it's photos of them all kind of categorised in this colour um yeah colour coordinated uh kind of system within the book it's so um lovely to look at um so that's really really good and really inspiring um and then at the minute there's this whole thing around um is were you misdiagnosed um and now we know so much more so actually I now I obviously am diagnosed with ADHD as well there's such a massive connection between ADHD and dyslexia um and how actually back in the day were you decided diagnosed with dyslexia but actually you had ADHD or both or what um and there's a really good book that's literally called is it ADHD or dyslexia and it talks through all of that as well. So yeah they're loads I'll pop a couple more up as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Yeah I love that that sound the one um you said about like the different people um that was all colour coded that sounds so inspiring just so nice for somebody to read that like you said as a teenager and be like wow look at what they've achieved despite this well more conversations now are reframing the narrative if they feel in any way negative towards themselves you know to see that and maybe to feel seen to feel like they've got maybe a vision is yeah is amazing. And I close the podcast with this question all the time um and it's quite it's quite a big one really but it is if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be um I there's so much I think um just go with your gut and yeah kind of trust yourself and believe in yourself.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

And I think yeah that's really interesting. I feel like there's so so much I could have given my younger self to um yeah just that not you're you're not a failure at all and there's um so much more this you've got such an amazing career ahead if only I could have seen that um at the time especially kind of early teens where it's super hard and um yeah you're muddling through and rubbish at everything except one thing. Yeah also you feel so yeah I think that would be it just yeah believe in yourself and um yeah have confidence in in yourself and what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Yeah that's so important and you are sitting here as one of those success stories. So honestly just thank you so much Charlie for sharing your story so openly because conversations like this they matter so much and awareness leads to understanding understanding leads to compassion um and I will definitely pop all those books in the show notes but thank you so much for joining.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Oh thanks for having me