I am very upfront about having Dyslexia. I’ve told every boss and colleague I’ve ever had, probably more than once. I lived in such fear that they would think I was stupid or incapable because: ‘My name is Sasha Colvile, and my spelling and grammar are honestly appalling.’

I don’t actually remember ever learning about grammar in school. I was almost certainly in the classroom but I was not concentrating. I remember my first struggle with spelling like it was yesterday. I was in primary school, and my classmates and I were all given a word we had misspelt. Everyone had words like ‘lion’ or something similarly spectacular, and I had ‘of’ – which I had spelt ‘ov’. Years went by with my creative licence when it came to spelling and grammar. And then came my Odyssey…

Reading The Odyssey.

Only, I didn’t read it.

The words would move around, I would read the same thing over and over again and forget everything. So my parents got it for me on CD. I sat at our kitchen table for 13 hours and 3 long minutes, listening and making notes on that book. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my classics essays were very unkind about Odysseus and his adventures.

I’m honestly slightly scarred from school. I was told I was bad at writing, bad at reading, bad at concentrating and had bad handwriting. Back then, dyslexia support amounted to: ‘Here’s some extra time in your exam, do you want a laptop?’

The corporate equivalent of ‘Will you write on the whiteboard in front of the class?’ is ‘Will you share your screen and take notes?’ I hate it, it makes me clammy, panicked and embarrassed all over again. Your peers’ laughter at school is replaced by your colleagues’ laughter at work. The judgement that you can’t spell or struggle with reading has continued well into my adult life even after explaining ‘I’m Dyslexic, I struggle with x’.

But less of the woe is me – this was meant to be more about what good qualities my brain does have, and why even in comms dyslexia shouldn’t hold you back.

A good business doesn’t hire carbon copies of the same employee, they recognise individual strengths and create teams around that. A Dyslexic brain isn’t a bad brain, it’s just different. At Grayling, our growth team is small but mighty. I would say mine and my colleague Ellie’s skills complement each other pretty well. She is exceptional at writing, can proof a document in double time and understands the laws of grammar like no one I’ve ever met. I bring the creativity, would rather call then write an email and occasionally bake – a perfect team dynamic.

My point is, your uniqueness is your USP and being neurodivergent isn’t a negative, it is simply your point of difference. In the business of agency where we are constantly trying to display our points of difference in order to win new business and clients, why can’t that be you?

Finally, if you ever come across someone who makes you feel less than or doesn’t take the time to understand your Dyslexia, you could always tell them to go away in some colourful language and then when they complain tell them it was spelling mistake.