What makes you #UniquelyYou: Faine

What makes you Uniquely You?

As someone with dyslexia I have some funny little quirks, for example, I often confuse things that are the same colour - I'll sometimes miss-call tomatoes, 'strawberries' because they are both red fruits.

I talk with my hands a lot because I often struggle to put thoughts into words, so you'll commonly hear me say things like, "I put the thing over there next to the other thingamagig", while pointing to the thingamagig.

Similarly, I'll often forget the name of things, so instead will attempt to describe the thing or place to the person I'm speaking to, so they can guess and help me find what I'm trying to say.

Conversations can often be a bit like a game of Taboo! I have so many interests I sometimes struggle to focus my attention, but I love to learn and find new hobbies to try.

I'm highly empathetic and see things from multiple perspectives, which makes me a good mediator. I'm grateful for my dyslexia because I believe it is one of the reasons for my curiosity, empathy, creativity and spatial visualisation.

I once drove all the way from Woking to Elephant and Castle without a satnav by remembering visual landmarks along the route, while travelling the same way as a passenger prior to that. When I've told people that, they seem amazed, so I think my ability to navigate visually could be a dyslexic trait. I'm still learning about my dyslexia as an adult.

I have dyslexia and/but…

I have dyslexia and dyscalculia. I’m a very slow reader and I still have to count on my fingers to do simple maths calculations, but I taught myself how to use HTML and CSS code to design marketing emails for my job.

It is important to raise awareness of dyslexia because…

Everyone with dyslexia is different and dyslexia varies in severity, so the more that people talk about it, the more we can understand it and work to create supportive environments in schools and workplaces, so dyslexic individuals can achieve their full potential.

There are lots of positives of dyslexia as well as the difficulties it brings. We shouldn’t prioritise the positives over the difficulties or vice vera, as both need to be focused on. I think all communities need neurodiversity to thrive. Can you imagine if everyone thought about the world in the same way? We wouldn't be such a successful species if that was the case.