Rebel Girls Celebrate Neurodiversity: 25 Tales of Creative Thinkers

Rebel Girls Celebrate Neurodiversity: 25 Tales of Creative Thinkers — page 5
6 AMANDA GORMAN POET One cold January morning Amanda Gorman approached a podium took a deep breath and began to speak Millions of people from around the world watched as she recited her poem The Hill We Climb It was the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden and she was the youngest inaugural poet in US history When she was finished the crowd cheered for her beautiful words and moving performance Amanda was proud of herself She knew there was a time in her life when saying a poem aloud would not have been so easy When she was a little girl Amanda was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder People with auditory processing disorders can hear but their brains have a hard time making sense of sounds This can make it difficult to have conversations follow directions or learn new words For Amanda this was especially true when she tried to say certain words and sounds like r and sh sounds Writing however that didn't pose those same challenges From a young age she found solace writing poems She worked hard to create a voice and style that was entirely her own Before long she had enough to fill a book She called it The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough Writing poems was one thing reciting them was another As Amanda got ready for the inauguration she focused on her inner voice She knew what she had to say was powerful and she could spread her message of hope and togetherness She practiced by reading aloud It helped her develop a strong voice and the courage to perform in front of others The letter r still gave her trouble especially when she had to say the word rise many lines in a row but that didn't matter Amanda led with her strengths and the world heard what she had to say BORN MARCH 7 1998 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA