Gov. Gavin Newsom on Dyslexia

Reflecting on another past interview

A few years ago, I had the distinct honor of being able to interview Governor Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 2nd district before being elected Mayor in 2004. He served as Mayor until 2011, then as lieutenant Governor of California before being elected Governor in 2019. In the interview we talked about being dyslexic as a child; he learned about being dyslexic at 7 or 8 years old and also found out that he’d been diagnosed much earlier, but his parents didn’t want that diagnosis to ‘stigmatize’ him. His mother was a huge part of his support system as he dealt with the anxiety that came along with his learning difference, and she would always tell him that it was ok and he was not dumb.

One of the things he said that really struck me was that he sees dyslexia as a gift: “the great gift and offset of dyslexia is what you overcompensate for and I have a strange ability to memorize things that no human should A) care about or even want to memorize, but that allows me to at least extemporaneously when I’m giving a speech to have this index in my brain of all these things I have underlined and I can visually see them.” I asked him if he had any advice for parents with dyslexic children and he said “Just celebrate all those interesting differences that your kids have. Everyone has something that no one else has, something that’s completely unique and distinctive to them. All of our expressions are unique; who wants to be like everybody else? In a world where you’re dealing with 2 plus billion people that are in the workforce that are just like everybody else, what’s your extra? And celebrate that and help those children and help your kids find that, and celebrate those interesting differences”. I think that we all need to listen to him, celebrate differences more, and be kind to each other for those differences.