Dyslexia occurs on a continuum with sufferers experiencing difficulties such as learning to read, process language, and matching letters and words to speech sounds. Dyslexia is often identified in school-age kids as was the case with Princess Beatrice and can lead to feelings of self-doubt and low self-esteem.
She recently made a video for Made By Dyslexia, an organization that raises awareness about the learning disability. In the video, Beatrice talks about how dyslexia impacted her self-esteem growing up, a common occurrence among those with the condition.
Princess Beatrice talks about her childhood struggles with dyslexia
“I was very lucky,” said Beatrice, “I got to go to a school that was very nurturing and very supportive, but I would describe the actual day to day learning side of things very challenging. You know, I remember we had different colored books to describe how far your reading levels had got to and I was always on the white books. My best friends were always in yellow books or green books.”
She recalls that her friends, “were so far ahead. And I think at that stage, those moments of doubt just pop into your head. I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough. Why am I not like the others?”
Princess Beatrice hopes to be a role model for those with dyslexia
Beatrice wants to share her story as a means of supporting others with dyslexia and even offered advice to her younger self.
“I think if I were to say to my younger self, do not be defined by those moments that happened to you in that exam or that classroom because they are lifelong learnings,” she said. “They are the lessons that you carry with you and they build you up to be who you are.”
In the end, Beatrice concludes that dyslexia is not a weakness
Beatrice gave sound advice and personal insights during her interview. She ended her talk by reinforcing the idea that dyslexia is not a weakness.
“It is not something that is wrong with you. It is a great part of how your brain works and everybody’s brain works incredibly differently,” she said. “There is nothing wrong, there is just everything that is so right.”
In fact, she gave a pointed example of how dyslexia has worked to her advantage.
“A lot of my colleagues also have dyslexia because we work in a technology company that is always about thinking differently.”
“And I think that’s one of the strengths we have as dyslexics is to look at things differently, be a problem solver, find new ways to do things, be experimental, entrepreneurial.”
