Welcome to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast.

I'm Kate Moore Youssef and I'm a wellbeing and lifestyle coach, EFT practitioner, mum to four kids and passionate about helping more women to understand and accept their amazing ADHD brains.

After speaking to many women just like me and probably you, I know there is a need for more health and lifestyle support for women newly diagnosed with adhd.

In these conversations, you'll learn from insightful guests, hear new findings and discover powerful perspectives and lifestyle tools to enable you to live your most fulfilled, calm and purposeful life wherever you are on your ADHD journey.

Here's today's episode.

So hi everyone.

Welcome back to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing podcast.

And today we have Louise Gooding.

Now, Louise Gooding is a channel children's author writing non fiction and picture books for all ages to enjoy.

And Louise has a keen interest in sharing stories that feature characters that stand out, are different and have something to say.

And these stories have been inspired from her own experiences and she took at writing to sensitive issues within children's books such as disability, neurodiversity and mental health.

And these amazing books include the Memory Book, Just Like Me and Wonderfully Wired Brains, which I have in front of me and absolutely adore and I can't wait to talk about.

And I'm just absolutely delighted to have you here because I feel like we've got lots to cover.

So welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

It's lovely.

I've been following you, you know, you for ages.

So it's been lovely to sort of.

Yeah.

Be sort of now a part of this, which is exciting.

Absolutely.

And I just love speaking to people who have had their diagnoses later on in life.

I know you were telling me before, that was about five or six years ago.

And you're channeling all of that energy and all that sort of creativity, but for a purpose and trying to help more children.

And I just wondered, you know, with regards to the books that you, you wrote, you've written the memory book and just like me, which would be four wonderfully wide brains.

Do you had you had your diagnosis then?

I had just had my diagnosis when I started writing.

I think I started writing, I wrote something similar to the Memory Book was my first ever book because, you know, whilst I was helping my daugh daughter who had her diagnosis of adhd, I was also kind of, you know, sort of going through that whole journey with my grandmother, with her dementia journey and she was an educator.

And she was always like, children should read.

Whether it's the back of a receipt or, or a newspaper clipping, whatever it is, they should.

All children should have access to reading, and if they can't, they should be read to.

She.

She worked in special needs as well.

She was just a lovely person.

So I wanted to write about dementia.

That was basically why what started me.

It wasn't anything inspired by my diagn on my daughter's diagnosis.

I wasn't even thinking about that at the time.

It was focused on, obviously, my grandma's journey.

And I went to a children's writers conference with this book under my arm, feeling ridiculously confident, with no experience at all of writing children's books.

I think that's the ADHD of, like, impulsiveness of like, I've got this.

This is amazing.

But, yeah, I went to this conference and someone was doing a talk on language we use and being careful and mindful of the different sort of languages we use around different people and different groups.

But this person kept on slipping up and going like, oh, that person's mental, or they're mad, or, you know, and I was like, so we're really careful about language, apart from when it includes maybe neurodiverse experiences or, or people with mental health experiences.

And obviously I didn't say anything because I'm just a nobody in the audience, but I kind of went home with that, I guess, fire of like, we talk about inclusive language all the time.

You know, she's talking about, obviously for disabled people.

Please do not say, oh, you know, that's.

That's blinded me, or, you know, any of the, you know, please, you know, And I understand, I totally agree.

Inclusive language all the way through.

But when it comes to the brain and mental health and neurodiversity, there was still this sort of stigma of, like, forgotten group of people.

So that kind of what lit the fire for me to go, okay, I need to find a space for this.

I need to find a space to talk about that.

And where do I start?

And that's kind of.

I went into a deep dive of, you know, what sort of other neurodivergent people are out there doing things which were amazing sort of like game changers around the world.

And, you know, whilst I was looking into neurodiverse people, I was thinking, well, hold on.

Well, I've.

I also live with chronic back pain.

I've got a degenerative disc issue in my spine, so I have a lot of pain.

And I was like, well, there's More to.

There's more to just me than the neurodiversity.

I do understand, you know, some of the disability link which was also missing, which is why I wanted to write just like me.

Because how often do children sit there and go, who was out there like me?

That I don't see anyone.

I don't see anyone like me anywhere.

And when they do, they're sort of like caricatures of who we are, if that makes any sense.

I just felt I really connected with that as a.

With a story, if that makes sense of as the positive representation.

How can you stop looking at people and going despite there.

Because there's more to us all, whether we're disabled, you know, physically diverse.

And I say that, you know, because obviously we've got visible skin differences, just differences.

And.

And no one really talks about it.

And again, I think there's an amazing person who's actually in my books.

This is where my brain, I said, will go off.

Forgotten his surname, Adam.

And he works for, I think, Faces for Change.

I think, I can't.

This is when my brain switches off.

I'm really sorry.

Everyone says live ADHD brain just goes, you know what you want to say, but we're just going to withhold that information from you.

Yeah, the processing situation.

Know it well.

I'm always very like, this is me.

Sorry.

Anyways, he.

I have to look him up in a second and just check his name because he really is worth a mention because he does some amazing work for people with visible differences and saying, look, you know, stop using us as the villains.

Stop using us, our community, for, you know, children and need adverts.

He.

And he does some amazing, amazing work.

He calls himself God's favorite disabled person.

He's hilarious.

I love.

But yeah, there's some amazing people.

And that's what said.

You know why I started Adam?

Adam Pearson.

Yes, I know exactly who you mean.

He's fantastic.

He's brilliant.

Yeah.

I mean, because what, what you've created in wonderfully wide brains, which is I've got in front of me, is the most beautiful book and it's so easy to read, understand its color is full of amazing illustrations.

But what you've really hit on is all the, the little things that are really hard to explain to other people.

And so you could literally hand this book to someone, a grandparent, you know, partner, sibling, teacher, and just say, here's.

Here's what's going on and here's what you need to understand.

And I have read a lot of books a Lot of books.

And this, I have to say, explains so much in such a concise, clear, practical, imaginative way that I.

I just love it.

Absolutely love.

You've got glossary, you've got ways to understand, you've got help, you've got people, celebrities, people from history, understanding tics, you know, with Tourette syndrome.

And I love it when you talk about bipolar, ocd, anxiety, depression, sleep.

But this is all through the lens of children.

The processing disorder.

One is the.

The pages are just fantastic because you talk about the funny phrases and getting sort of metaphors and jokes mixed up, which has been the running joke of my life.

Like, my dad has consistently laughed at me and mocked me because I can never get the phrase right.

Or I'll tell a joke and I'll miss a punchline, or I'll try and tell a story and the story won't come out correctly and I'll be like, oh, do you know what?

Forget it.

I'm not going to tell the story.

And so this book has sort of really helped me understand how certain things have showed up for me, even though I thought I knew lots about neurodiversity, so.

And yeah, and you've got Synthesisia, Dyscalcia, Dysgraphia.

It's fabulous.

And I can't wait for my kids to, you know, properly read it because this should.

This book should be in every library in school, and it should be every family that has got neurodiversity in there.

It should be there on the kitchen table, a glossary ready for people to just, you know, dive in.

Because my issue is that the generation behind us, like grandparent generation, are very dismissive about all these complexities and nuances and they kind of just brush things aside.

And actually, if you don't have the mental energy, and let's face it, there's a lot of mental energy there to advocate for neurodiversity.

You know, we know, we see it in the media, we see it everywhere, that if you don't understand, it's so exhausting.

And actually, sometimes you just say, I can't be bothered.

But a book like this breaks down those.

Those gaps.

See, there's a.

You get that?

I can't remember.

The phrase breaks down the.

I think we know maybe.

Maybe Dr.

Zeus also, that's why he came up with these words.

He couldn't think of the word he wanted, so he just made things up.

Possibly.

When you've got people who don't understand and you're trying.

I mean, I don't know about You.

But I mean, I, I bought a lot of books as well about neurodiversity and I just found them so unfriendly because I'm like, this is just so much information being thrown at me in block heavy text, loads of data.

I don't know what to do with that.

Like, it would go in one ear and out the other.

It would not stay with me.

And I really struggled with that.

And I mean, I guess again, this is another reason I was already finding bits of information and shouting at them, at people.

So just, I guess gathering them and putting them into a book made sense for me because I just.

Where do you go?

You know, there's so many resources available, but they're not all clubbed together or they're a bit here or you, you know, you think you found the resource, then you find that they're linked to maybe, maybe not such a great organization.

That's the other thing which sometimes happens.

It's really difficult, I think, to know that you're getting the right information.

So that was something really important to me.

The people could pick up a book and yes, it's targeted, as you just pointed out, it's targeted at kids from seven plus.

I think it's for everybody.

You know, personally, it's your basic easy to read guide, what's going on.

And it breaks it down to just the beginner's level.

Like, I mean, I made such a point of when I first wrote this as a proposal, I, I had the animal bit in there.

It was so important for me to talk about diversity and brain diversity.

Let's not even talk about humans.

Let's just go bigger than that.

Let's look at how diverse, even in, in the animal kingdom our brains are.

Like, that was.

And that again, brings in kids, brings in people to go, well, hold on.

Yes, like, you know, there is some sort of changes.

There are some differences.

So obviously, you know, I hope to like bring that just down to the basics so everybody could feel confident and proud of, of their brain because this was the thing.

Like, someone might pick up this book and go, well, this book's not relevant to me because I don't have a diagnosis of, you know, I'm not autistic and I don't have adhd.

It doesn't matter.

You, have you ever felt low in your life?

Have you ever suffered from insomnia?

Have you ever like had moments where things have been difficult?

You know, it does talk in there about mental health and I think everyone can relate to that.

Everyone can find something in this book that they relate to.

Whether you're neurodiverse or not, I think that's.

Well, everyone's neurodiverse.

That's what I sort of covered in the book.

Everyone is neurodiverse.

But whether you're neurodivergent or not, I hope that people look at this and learn something and.

And realize that, you know, the way they're made up is special and unique to them.

What I love the fact that you included the history and really understanding, you know, how it showed up in Egyptian times and how, you know, you've got the timeline here back from the 1600s to even 400 BCE, 700 BCE of just how it all shows up and all the historical figures, and I just love, love it.

And like you say, it's a celebration of brains, it's a celebration of difference.

And when we can move past this stigma and we can move past the, oh, you know, I'm only this or I'm only that, and actually realize that there's this spectrum of going on and where Tourette's can interplay with OCD and anxiety, can interplay with ADHD and dysgraphia and dyscalcula.

And for people to understand that, you know, we don't have to have all these labels, but to have a recognition and compassion and acceptance that it's there.

But also just for me, you know, just that that moment when I read about the processing and it made me laugh about, you know, be sort of messing up on my metaphors and analogies.

It's kind of like, okay, it's not me just being like, a bit silly and ditzy.

There's actually a processing thing of working memory and, know, mixing language together.

And I've still got a podcast and what you were saying before is sometimes, you know, with your working memory, just things just disappear.

And I said, you know, you've written all these books and so for you to.

Your brain is incredible.

And for you to just sort of have a moment where your working memory sort of, you know, takes over for you to feel like.

I think you use the word a bit.

What did you use?

If my brain's a little bit rubbish.

You know, I think it's.

Yeah.

The funny thing is, and as I said to you, like, I get more anxiety about it around adults than I do with children.

Like adults.

I always feel like I have to be an adult.

I guess I have to have it together, everyone.

I think this is a really good thing with it.

With ADHD is as well.

Sometimes we're really good at looking like we've got everything together, but we really don't.

Like everything's fire behind us and we're still smiling.

We're fine.

Because I think for me, why I do.

I really am authentically me when I go into a school or online workshop because it's so important.

Because when I was at school, I was the.

A star, a student when it came to presentations, I could, I could present anything.

I could talk the legs of a hind donkey off of anything when I was excited and interested in it.

Put me in an exam situation and I failed and I flunked and I.

I just couldn't do it.

And I always assumed that that meant I had.

I'll be on quite honest.

I assumed it meant I had no future.

I assumed it meant that I couldn't do the things I wanted to do.

And I always fancied being a teacher because put me in front of kids, I come alive.

I like educating.

I love history.

I love.

You know why I put history in this?

Because I was like, let me talk about history because it's a passion of mine.

But I just, I failed because I could not do the exams.

So that door was.

Felt like it was forever shut to me, if that made sense.

And when I discovered writing, I said I didn't have a great idea.

I just spontaneous like, well, let's see where this goes and let's see what happens.

And I've kind of discovered that I'm actually being an educator.

This is.

I'm doing what I always wanted to do and I just did it in my way, in a way that works with my brain.

And that is my massive message to kids because I thought that I would never get to be an educator because my working memory wouldn't allow me to sit exams.

But I am an educator and I think that's so important.

I want kids to sit there who maybe are maybe like me or maybe worried that I could never be an author.

You know, my spelling's all over the place, I can't spell.

And sometimes I've even put up slides of like, this is.

This is me when I.

When I write a draft, how many spelling mistakes?

Or my, my brain is faster than my fingers.

And look at this.

And they were like, but you're an author.

You shouldn't know.

Like, please, you know.

And that's why again, it was important to include, you know, Carrie Burnell in Wonderfully Wired Brains.

You know, she's a very successful children's author now and children's television presenter.

Previously.

And she, you know, she's dyslexic, so she's having to learn lines and read and reading and writing is a huge part of her world.

Kids to be like, oh, okay, like that's, that's not a shut draw to me that, you know, this is not.

We're so, we're so lucky in this day and age to have things like spell check and Grammarly and all these things.

Like you say, I'm exactly the same.

I don't think I've got dyslexia, but I know that there's dyscalculia and probably dysgraphia going on.

But I, I'm the same as you.

When I write my first draft, it is just, just like everything that I could possibly get out and I read back and then I just thank God that I've got some, you know, some software that can help tidy it all up.

And I just think, you know, we are, we are lucky now that that shouldn't have to stop us.

That the stuff that goes on in our brains and what comes out onto paper doesn't.

It's not our worth.

And we can always get help.

We can have an editor.

We can find someone that is good at that and they can, we can collaborate with them.

I mean, Google is amazing.

Google.

So much of my.

Did you mean to write this sentence like this?

And I was like, no, you know, yeah, there's so much.

I mean, I mean, I think we, I think there's lots of adults who probably had a bit of a tough time, you know, and it's.

I think, and I'm going to just speak out here and say, I think it's.

We're grateful that technology has changed.

We're grateful that our kids have got so much better access to understanding and tools.

But I do feel that there carries a little bit of that almost inner sadness of what could I have done?

I think so many adults carry that now.

Like, I wish that was available to me or what more could I have achieved if only I'd had.

And I sometimes have to remind myself not to sit there and feel sad about when I didn't understand because, you know, I still achieved loads of different amazing things and I can't look back and feel sad about it.

But I think a lot of adults, sometimes there is that slight sadness of, oh, I wish I had that.

So many adults that I wish that this book was available.

And I'm like, me too.

That's why I wrote it.

You know, like, it's.

But I just hope that it helps the next generations.

And I think we having been through the, I guess it is a bit of trauma, the trauma of not getting that support or help just kind of lights a fire under us.

I think really to say, look, no, we don't want it anymore for us and we definitely don't want it for the next generation.

So it's really important that.

It sounds horrible, but it's important that sometimes people go through the pain of having those experiences without the understanding and support so they can do the, you know, it's a real, real mental toll and it shouldn't have had ever happened to anyone.

But it's unfortunately I think how it is and I just hope that I guess our generation just really looks after the next to make sure that they don't have to go through that.

Well, what if.

Or if only I had access to.

I mean I hear a lot from women like you and me who've got children with different, you know, things going on, neurodivergence.

And I've got two diagnosed, one on the way.

And I am just the biggest advocate for helping them and helping them see how brilliant their brains are and really leaning into all their strengths and really helping them, getting the support and speaking to teachers and sending books to the send department and just making sure.

Because this is, this is what I wish I'd had.

This is what, you know, I wish I'd had teachers that could spot certain things, my parents that could see where the difficulties were.

All the masking that went on, the exhaustion of not quite being able to live up to what I thought there was.

There was this potential inside me.

I could never quite get to it.

And yeah, you know, we're playing catch up.

And the fact that you've already published three incredible books in the space of time that you have had your diagnosis is unbelievable.

So in, is it five or six years you've published three books and, and you got your diagnosis around.

Yeah.

So what were you doing?

So tell me a little bit about life before pre diagnosis, pre writing books.

What was going on for you?

I guess I am.

I always joke to people I'm like the stereotypical like poster girl of like trying to find herself.

I had a million and one hobbies.

I never stuck with anything.

I was always trying to find the thing that would be my thing.

My partner at the time was always like, we have.

You have a craft room, Louise.

We literally I had a craft room of all of the miss like the hobbies I had started and then got bored.

But I know this One well, and.

It'S going to be great.

I'm going to be an artist.

No, I'm not.

I'm going to be this or I'm going to do that.

I just didn't know.

And as I said, because for me especially, I really struggled.

I was kind of scared.

Scared of education and going back into it.

I'm quite open about.

About that because I just felt it was inaccessible and I didn't know why.

Now I do.

As I said, you know, I went back out.

She was last year that I went and had further diagnosis and help for.

Why.

Why was I still struggling?

Like, why was I unable to access things I couldn't?

You know, having an ADHD diagnosis was great, but where were my strengths and weaknesses?

Like, really, I wanted to know more.

More.

And they.

How did you do that?

Who did you do that through?

I went through.

That was.

I was in Switzerland at the time and I was at a clinic there because I.

I'll be honest, I was having a bit of a mental health breakdown with, you know, my daughter was not having particularly great access to help and support in the Swiss education system.

I don't think it's all over everywhere, but where we lived especially, it was not great.

And I was talking about that trauma thing.

I.

I really struggled watching her go through that.

And I basically was trying to then obviously keep up with, you know, my work, my writing.

And I would be like, but I'm, you know, sometimes I do things and I forget or, you know, I should be doing more.

And I want to now go and study this, but I don't know how I go and study this because I'm obviously capable, but I just can't unlock something in my brain.

And so I went to this, this clinic and they were fantastic.

And I saw an ADHD specialist who basically said, your working memory is really not great.

It's you.

You have a learning disability because you just don't, you know, unless you.

She worked out.

If it was done a specific way, I'm good and I'm a.

I'm a practical person.

Show me.

Show me with movement and things and that I.

I retain things.

Asking me to repeat numbers.

If you said to me now, six numbers in a row, I'd probably remember two of them.

I just literally can't.

My brain just freaks out.

And that was my whole thing of, like, I want to go back to education, but I don't know.

Again, is it something, you know, I said I was scared before and I was scared now to do it.

So that's why I went and had this, this clinic, you know, diagnosis to say, you know, is it a possibility or is there something stopping me or is it just me stopping me because of, you know, past experiences in my school life?

So getting that was really, really helpful.

But, yeah, beforehand it was, you know, yeah, I was just, I was just doing a bit of everything.

I was a children's entertainer for three years, which I absolutely loved, and that worked really well with my personality bouncing around and different themes every week.

I, I got told, I think, three days notice that I was going to be on an international radio show, which I knew I was helping organize the Children's Day.

And originally I was told, oh, you've got one hour on the radio.

I've never been on radio before, a broadcast live.

I don't care, it's fine.

And then they said, okay, someone's pulled out.

Would you mind doing three hours?

And this is.

And I was on air around the world for three hours, no problem at all.

But, you know, and these are experiences, I think, where I've enjoyed.

I've discovered bits about myself which I'm always creative.

I'm always interested in being crafty.

I'm always interested in working with kids.

So I guess everything I've done beforehand, I would say has kind of led me to this moment of discovering, well, being a, being a writer is the most creative thing you can do.

I always send doodles.

I love doodling my poor illustrators.

I'm like, what about this?

Like, and I'm trying not to tread on the toes because you shouldn't do that with illustrators.

But, you know, you talk about the processing thing.

When I say about the cat out the bag.

I mean, I sent that, that, that, that in with an illustration of a cat in a bag.

You know, like, I'm always doodling because that's how my brain, you know, my brain works like that.

And even the introduction page where you see me in my dungarees, that's actually from a, an illustration.

I sent the publishers to say, this is me, this is who I am.

And they gave that illustration to the illustrator to say, can you incorporate Louisa's energy into her introduction page with her magpie, with her squirrels, with her fog?

You know, can you, can you do that?

So, yeah, I guess all of the things I've done beforehand have always led me.

Yeah.

To where I am now.

And I feel comfortable where I am now.

But I tried everything.

I was never sure where I was going to be or what I was going to do.

I was always, what?

What is that?

I'm just looking now at the introduction page and yeah, I love it.

Absolutely.

They've really captured your energy.

I hear this all the time of women who spend pretty much their whole life soul searching and looking.

Why can't I just stick it?

Why can't I just find my thing?

And we berate ourselves and we sort of, you know, it's like, why can't I just do it and stay and stay put?

And then we get this diagnosis and it's kind of like, okay, and it's a lot more acceptance.

And then you start leaning into that creativity.

And what's interesting, I can hear you saying that all the things kind of just that you've been doing was building up.

And then maybe that diagnosis just gave you that full permission to kind of go, I'm just going to do the thing I'm going to do.

I'm going to write the books.

I also hear a lot of people with adhd, they love writing.

I mean, I also love writing and they have lots of incredible ideas.

But you went from having the ideas writing proposal, how did you get over the finishing line?

Like, how's that?

You got.

Did you get an agent?

Like, did you send it out to publishers?

How did it work?

Yeah, it really is an adhd.

Naivety, spontaneity.

Just go for it.

I had a friend when I was like, I put together this proposal and she was.

She'd been writing for years.

She was very nice and very supportive.

And she's like, yeah, but Louise, just remember, I've been doing this for many, many, many, many, many years.

And it doesn't just happen overnight.

And, you know, just be aware.

And I think I sent it to only three agents.

I didn't realize you were meant to send it to, like about 200.

And I'm not the person to follow everyone.

People need to understand that this does not happen ever.

But I sent the just like me proposal to my agency and Madeline Milburn, and the agency just picked it up and said, there's nothing out there like this at the time.

And they, they were interested in, you know, what I had to say, why I was doing it, why, why I was so inspired to write these books.

And, you know, obviously I'm still with them and they've been, you know, amazingly supportive of sort of helping me write books, which all kind of feature around the brain, didn't mean to.

Them all have a brain link, but they all have a brain link.

And I was just incredibly lucky.

I think, right time, right place.

I think the hardest thing with doing this process is it requires a lot of putting yourself out there.

And I have other neurodiverse authors who I'm friendly with who have been through the long process of sending out work and getting rejection after rejection, which is incredibly difficult when, you know, as, again, ADHD is.

Neurodiverse folk tend to suffer from rsd, you know, rejection sensitivity.

And so it's, it's really difficult going in.

And even when you're in the door, you still sit there and go, but do they still like me?

Am I doing enough?

Am I working enough?

Am I, do I deserve to be here?

Because I feel like, you know, I just plonked myself in here and, you know, as my friend said, a place which takes some people like 5, 10, 20 years to get into, should I be here?

All of those things start going around your head again of like, oh, you know, it's a fluke and now I've got to keep going and, oh, maybe I can't write really.

And it was just this one thing.

And, you know, I've been really lucky with Said, you know, Madeline Milburn as the agency, you know, they've been really encouraging.

We've had a few sit downs where I've been at one time like going, you know, am I pigeonholing myself?

That's the other thing I worry about.

I don't want to just talk for all, you know, neurodivergent people.

You know, I get sometimes really worried and they have to sometimes sort of say to me to calm down and like, stop overthinking it.

You know, you're doing a good job.

And the fact that you sit there and panic constantly shows that you do care.

You.

It's so important to me that all this is done properly and inclusive.

It doesn't feel like it's just kids, you know, and having, you know, adults celebrated.

It's.

It's important for me to bring that link in so kids could see people.

But as I say, not role models.

I always say I shouldn't say, I don't like the word role model because I think that we can have people who inspire us to want to be people.

It was my eldest daughter who once had a project saying that she came home with homework and said, choose a role model who you want to grow up to be.

And she was so angry at the homework.

She.

Yeah, she's autistic and she's like, I don't want this.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do the homework.

Why not like, like, you know, oh, maybe I was doing typical mums do like, you know, maybe it could be me, it could be someone else.

And she just was like, no, because I don't want to grow up to be anyone else because otherwise I'll be like everyone else and I won't grow up to be me.

I need to grow up to be me.

And that since is then has totally ruined the world.

Role model for me because I'm like, I agree with her.

I think you need to be your own role model.

You need to base yourself and who you want to be on what is important, what your values are, not everyone else's or that person's.

Amazing.

I'm going to grow up to be like them.

Because you're not again, go back to one wide brains.

We're not ever going to be, you know, but we can inspire, inspire and do things.

So yeah, I'm always really careful with.

Yeah, I don't say role models anymore.

Well, no, she, you can see how insightful she is.

And you know, the autistic brain is just so brilliant because she just saw that and was like, no, not doing that.

That's not for me.

I'm going to do it my way.

And that is how, you know, our, our generation were conditioned from the generation before where doing anything different was deemed dangerous.

And you always had to sort of stick to.

Stick to what we new and never, you know, sort of always stick to conformities, never break out.

And now we're seeing this generation below us, our children who are celebrating different, who are happy to stand out from the crowd and stand up for what they believe in.

And it's, for us, it's inspiring because we can learn from our children.

But I genuinely believe that this book is a book where you can sit down with many different generations and really understand and really pick what, you know, what, what resonates and learn things that we didn't know about.

And it's so accessible, so fun, imaginative.

And I've got, you know, kids who potentially, if I gave them a book with lots of words with no pictures, they would just not even bother.

But with this it feels sort of quite enticing and like, okay, I can read a couple of pages over breakfast or okay, I'll read a couple of pages while I'm having dinner or whatever.

So I will make sure that all the links go to the book on the show.

Notes.

I'm intrigued to know, have you got any other books?

I'm sure that is a.

More ideas bubbling under the surface.

Yeah, And I'm still doing brain linked books even though I went for a stage of worrying that that was my thing.

But it's what I'm passionate about, it's what I really believe in.

So there are some things in the pipelines out there in the world at the moment in various people's hands.

Hopefully they pick them up.

So I can't, you know, I can't say anything more.

I mean, I can hope, I have hope that I can continue doing what I do and I hope that people see that I am passionate about this and you know, I just want to make it easier and safer for kids to, to talk about these things and their feelings and, and to just see it sort of displayed in different ways because, you know, again, sorry, go back to the memory book.

Yes, there are lots of lovely books out there which cover dementia but you know, there's, there's always going to be a story which speaks directly to someone and it's more relevant to their experiences, if that makes sense.

And again, in that book I put a whole chapter in the back about, you know, how to actually talk to children about dementia and what it is and, you know, how to get help.

I think there's always space for more books that talk about neurodivergence and I hope, I hope that the majority of them are written by people who have experienced it.

I think it's incredibly important.

We have experts who I guess, you know, study it, but I always feel that we can see those books if you're not, I mean, there's some of the books we've read before which are just facts and figures and block texts and they're very like heavy.

I think sometimes you need someone who, who wants to find the, the pride and the, and the celebration and, and wants to break through that stigma again.

I say with a fire, fire underneath them to be like, no, let's change this up.

So hopefully I'm going to write some more and hopefully there are other people inspired to, to do it because I think there's always space for, yeah, more books like this in the world.

Yeah, I agree.

And lastly, can I ask, I can see, you know, now you've, you've had your diagnosis, you've written these amazing books.

You maybe have found that kind of that thing that you were looking for.

Do you, do you feel, how do you feel in yourself now that you're starting to understand your brain better?

Like do you feel that you have things under control or there still struggles for you?

I never have anything to control.

Sorry, sorry.

I'M just going to be because it's.

That'S so important for people to know that they're sort of hearing this and you, and you've got an agent, you've written books and you, you know all of this.

But actually it's still a daily kind of challenge, isn't it?

Am I doing enough?

Am I saying the right things?

Am I speaking to the right people?

Am I going to be like the one hit wonder and that's it, you know, I disappear, you know, there's all of these anxieties and what comes next?

Or should I be, should I be studying more?

Should I be doing things more?

Should I be backing up a lot of, you know, my work with, you know, should I be now going to university and getting a degree in, like in all of these things?

And actually, you know, I have to sometimes give myself a bit of grace and patience.

That's the big thing.

I some And I have an amazing sister who occasionally I go, she just goes, calm down, let's look at what's happened today.

And you know, you know, yes, something craps happened maybe today, but let's look at what you did survive and what you did go through and the sun was shining and, and, and I think, you know, that, that, you know, is amazing for me to have, you know, someone out there who occasionally just goes, just breathe, you're fine.

But you know, I, I still haven't got things together.

I mean, I've just, I've just moved back to England two weeks ago.

I'm in the middle of just chaos and you know, that's my life.

It's, it's chaos.

And I, you know, would I, would I change it sometimes for a quieter life, but also no, because I think I'd probably get quite bored without the chaos.

Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

We have to learn to, that's part of our, our brain and our, and our life and you know, we can learn to resent it and hate it and, or we can just laugh at all the obstacles it throws at us if we can, you know, I understand, I've been, I've been in dark places too.

So I do understand it's, it's sometimes difficult just to hear someone say that when you're not feeling that.

But as soon as we can kind of, kind of find the humor and find the positives that we are putting out in the world and if you've not found, you know, found that path yet, maybe it's, you're not, you know, finding your thing yet, as you said earlier.

But I think once we have the opportunity to work with our energy and, and to find our positives of what we are putting out there, it's easier to give ourselves a bit more, more patience and, and grace with.

Yeah.

With who we are.

But yeah, not using that energy as a negative source and self down because even if the one thing you did today was pick up a piece of litter on the street, well, good for you.

You know, that's amazing.

And you've done something which might look like nothing but actually sure has a rolling on effect.

I think people need to.

Yeah.

Give them some ourselves a bit more kindness.

So yeah, but I'm just again live ADHD go off on a million tangents.

I just think.

No, you know what, I genuinely believe that these conversations, these honest conversations where we talk about the vulnerabilities, we talk about the successes and the strengths but we also recognize that it's an ebb and flow and it's, we have the good stuff but the stuff that's not so easy is challenging.

And the fact that you know, you're openly admitting there's this imposter syndrome and anxiety and you know, externally people may be sort of seeing you as this celebrated published author but actually just very finely beneath the surface there's all these worries and imposter syndrome and I think it's just important that people know that you can have the success but there's always going to be, you know, the other stuff behind it.

But I've just, I've loved this conversation, Louise and I just wanted to thank you for, for your insight.

Thank you for sharing all about the book and I will make sure that people know how to get hold of the book and it all goes on the show notes and I look forward to reading your next book which hopefully when it, when you get that deal, let me know and hopefully we'll come back.

Thank you, Louise.

Thank you.

I really hope you enjoyed this week's episode Episode.

If you did and it resonated with you, I would absolutely love it if you could share on your platforms or maybe leave a review and a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts.

And please do check out my website, ADHD womenswellbeing.co.uk for lots of free resources and paid for workshops.

I'm uploading new things all the time and I would absolutely love to see you there.

Take care and see for the next episode.