Neurodiversity Celebration Week: Neurodivergent Creatives

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week.

To commemorate this, we are celebrating neurodiverse musicians, performers and creatives who have navigated successful and accomplished careers.

“The fact that I work in a creative industry probably helps. We dyspraxics think in a different way”

Florence was diagnosed with dyspraxia, dyslexia and dyscalculia as a young girl. Speaking about her neurodiversity, Florence said that in her first paid job as a barmaid, she felt a “sting of shame” when her manager called her out for her inability to count the change when serving customers. In response, she created her own way of counting the change - to learn the shape of each coin in her hand, and apply a geometric value to it. In the end, she says, she became "a pretty good barmaid".

“You need to see yourself up there in order to be more confident and know that you’re also included in society. There are so many amazing performers with learning disabilities and autism out there who deserve an opportunity to show what they can do”

In his teens, Cian noticed how he was treated differently from his non‑disabled classmates. “I hated watching all the other teenagers walking off to the local school, with me being stuck on this minibus.. It was embarrassing, like segregation.” Cian notes that he also felt there were times he was overprotected, such as being followed too closely by support staff when learning to do things independently. Cian says it is important that neurodiverse performers don’t compare themselves with others. “Everyone is an individual,” he says. “We all have different talents and what you do will be unique.”

“I’m very lucky I didn’t have it easy, because I’ve learned so much from having to figure out everything on my own and create things for myself. Now I can teach what I’ve learned to the next generation”

Salma had always struggled with reading, but was a capable student. It wasn't until she was a teenager that she was diagnosed with dyslexia. On her dyslexia, Salma says “I’m really a fast learner. I always was, which is maybe why in high school they didn’t realize I had dyslexia. I skipped years without studying too much”. Despite a difficult start to her career in Hollywood, Salma was determined to not let her dyslexia hold her back, and started landing major acting roles in feature films.

“There’s unlimited positives to ADHD. I feel very deeply, and I’m very emotionally charged and impulsive. I’m energetic. I bounce around, and when you’re playing shows as a musician or trying to be creative, it helps. Things come out of me. I don’t think about them, because I have ADHD—and that’s the beauty of it. If I write, I write what I feel"

During his school years, Loyle was diagnosed with ADHD. “I just thought I was this wrong and crazy kid and no one else understood”, he says. “If I could have looked at someone who was 20, or 22…. I didn’t know anyone older with ADHD and I didn’t know what prospects I had. Like, do I go off and start whittling wood into benches?” Despite feeling ambivalent about the diagnosis, Loyle openly accepts his ADHD, and believes it is important to his character that he embraces it. “It makes me who I am—it’s the only reason I make music, play shows, and can make people laugh"

"On the whole, I think having Asperger's has been a good thing. It's given me a slightly different view of the world and I truly believe it helped get me through some hard times. I'd never wish it away”

Gary Numan was diagnosed with Asperger's around age 14. Despite having difficulties with conversations and social situations, he says his Asperger's has a positive impact on his musical career and life in general, and believes his unique perspective of life has influenced the music he has released - "So you're awkward and you don't interact socially very well, that's not much of a price to pay for what it gives you, it gives you that focus, it gives you that obsession, it means that you can, if bad reviews come in, just push it all to one side because that just gets in the way, you can just plough through that".

Find out more about Neurodiversity Celebration Week

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