Changing Perspectives... on Neurodiversity

In my early days in media, I struggled. I couldn’t match pre-times without checking them three times over (that’s what we used to do before holdings). I stayed back until midnight just to finish tasks others seemed to knock over with ease.

I wasn’t lazy. I was overloaded. ADHD and dyslexia made the basic mechanics of the job feel harder than they should. But I wasn’t diagnosed back then. I just assumed I was disorganised, forgetful, not cut out for the pace.

So, I worked harder. Masked it. Overcompensated. And in the process, I quietly questioned whether I’d ever make it. But I had a deep stubborn desire to thrive.

As a kid, I was the joker. The big personality. I played the extrovert and was always looking for connections and leaning into the fun. But by the end of the day, I’d be wrecked. It took a lot of energy to perform that way. At the time, I didn’t realise how much of that was me trying to keep up, copying what I thought success looked like.

The big shift came when I stopped imitating and started accepting the way I’m wired. I’m not fast at everything but I go deep. When the data doesn’t stack up, I ask questions. It probably annoyed some managers, but I gave a shit! Maybe too much, but that’s who I am. I realised that perseverance, hard work and an analytical mind are good things, and that the trick is to unearth where your strengths lie and not waste years trying to work like someone else.

That shift became even more important when I became a parent. My daughter has ADHD. She’s bright, curious, creative and wired differently – like me. I want her to grow up in a world that doesn’t mistake her differences for weakness. I want her to thrive with less anxiety and burnout than I had to push through. That’s part of why I’m sharing this.

It also helped that I had great bosses. Many were neurodivergent themselves. Wired differently to me but similar in spirit. Deep thinkers. Lateral problem-solvers. Pattern-spotters. Quiet operators.

They gave me space, which built my confidence. And I came to see that the industry isn’t one type of thinker – that was just my early assumption. This industry has always attracted various kinds of minds, we just haven’t always embraced that difference.

Now I’m a partner at Avenue C, I still sometimes wonder how I got here. Not in an impostor syndrome kind of way (though it still taps me on the shoulder sometimes) but in a grateful one. I’ve learned how to better manage my anxiety, how to work in a way that feels authentic to me, and I’ve had the privilege of building a team that values trust, care, and genuine diversity of thought.

The more I embrace how my brain works, the better the work becomes. I’ve seen the benefits of true open-mindedness to different styles of thinking, not just in a pitch deck but in our culture. Diverse thinkers don’t slow things down – they sharpen strategy, they spot risks and they drive better decisions. Today that is a commercial advantage, one I am proud to encourage.

This isn’t about sympathy. I’ve done well. But I’m not going to pretend it was easy or that I got here by being like everyone else. I got here by leaning into the way I’m wired and by working with the right people. That’s the real formula.

I’ve written this to support and celebrate the work the MFA DE&I Advisory Council is doing. It’s brave, it’s overdue and it’s setting up the next generation of talent to thrive on their own terms. Our industry doesn’t need one way of thinking. It never has. What it needs is the confidence to back difference, not just tolerate it.

And I’m all in for that.