Dyslexic Voices: Julia Wild

I wish I had understood when I was younger that the fact that my brain worked differently than people meant that I would be good at things in ways that other kids were not going to be good at. And I also think having to struggle that hard for, you know, those early years and kind of feeling so badly about myself in some ways made me a really tough kid.

Hey everyone, we're Nick and Sonja, and this is Dyslexia Journey, where we help you support the dyslexic kid in your life. And today we're so happy to welcome Julia Wild, a dyslexic adult who's going to share her very interesting journey with us. And so I just want to welcome you, Julia. Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited to talk with you guys. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today.

So to start with, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, particularly what was it like for you before you were identified with dyslexia or figured out that you were dyslexic? It was rough for a little bit. It was very confusing, especially for me as a kid, because I identified as being so smart. And everyone in my family told me I was smart. All my teachers told me I was smart.

And I couldn't read until I was about 12, which was really confusing to me why my language was so developed compared to kids my age. And my audio recall was, I could quote pages of books back and pages of Shakespeare, but I couldn't spell. And that was really hard for me to get my head around why I felt so stupid sometimes, but I was being told that I wasn't. And then when the school actually figured out that I was dyslexic, it wasn't my parents.

They'd never heard of it. They had no idea what was going on. I think a little bit of them thought I was just being difficult when I was like, the letters are moving. Like, I swear, I'm really trying. And then once the school realized and got me a special tutor and they started kind of adapting things for me, it got so much better. What age was that at? It was around the age of nine.

So I think that's third grade, which is when my friends were already starting to read chapter books and like Harry Potter. And I was still doing like, the dog comes in, the dog goes out. And kind of at one point, my teachers realized that I'd actually just memorized what was on every page and instead of reading. So I knew by which picture of the dog it was, what I was supposed to say, because then I was also playing tricks by putting the book upside down and doing the whole thing backwards.

So they figured it out. Yeah, that's such a, I think, a common kind of accommodation that people develop for themselves. Our compensation, I guess, where they, you know, memorize things. Our daughter did that as well. Do you think that some of those other aspects were compensations as well? Or what else do you think now, when you're looking back, was a compensation? Like, your memory, obviously, was very, very good. Yeah. So one thing that my parents ended up doing, which I loved, is that because I was struggling to read myself, is they would read a lot of books to me.

So like, you know, all the Harry Potter series and all of these books that we loved, my mom would be reading me a book and my dad would be reading me a book. And then I had a babysitter who would also be reading me a book, and I could keep three separate chapter book storylines correct in my head at one time. And whenever I sat down, I could, like, quote back to them, like, the last page of everything that happened to, like, figure out where we were.

It was like this weird party trick that I had. So I think once they realized that they could give me, like, audio books or podcasts instead of trying to have me read the textbook myself, all of a sudden I had all the information there. And that was one thing that once I had my, like, special accommodation for school, they realized that if an A just would sit with me and, like, read the math questions to me, you know, suddenly it kind of clicked more than trying to do it on paper.

Because my dyslexia was very visual, like entire chunks of text would be, like, off the page. I couldn't tell the difference between Bs and Ps and 6s and 9s. So that all got very confusing. But once we learned the audio and color coding helped a lot and bigger fonts were helpful. So we learned a lot of tricks like that that were quite nifty.

Yeah, I think it's really interesting what you said about the math problems as well, because I think that's something that a lot of people don't understand about dyslexia is how it affects kind of all your subjects in school. Because everything involves reading and sometimes it's really helpful, like in our daughter's case, just to have someone just sort of sit with her and, like, read the math problems to her. That really helps her.

Yeah, yeah. I think at one point when they were trying to figure out, like, what was helpful, they were like, oh, we'll just give you, you know, 15 minutes extra on every test just to give you extra time. And I was like, that doesn't help if I can't read the questions. Me sitting there confused for 15 more minutes doesn't get it across. But my parents were really good at hearing from the school that, like, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't being dumb.

I wasn't being difficult. That it was literally I just had to have it presented to me differently and then it would click. And I was like, oh, well, obviously, like, spatial things helped a lot. They gave me these blocks. I don't know if you guys remember these or if your daughter ever had them. They were like these plastic cubes where you could see, like, 100 cubes together or 10 cubes together and doing math that way.

And as soon as I could visualize, because my brain is also very 3D, so I can see, like, a lot of 3D shapes and rotate them around in my head. And I was like, oh, well, 10 by 10 is obviously 100 if I look at it this way instead of it just being, like, arbitrary shapes on a page. And so the more physical things I could do really, really helped me sort it out.

Yeah, it's such a good point just about I'm glad you're bringing up all these very specifics about learning things that can help. And your point about the timing of tests I think is really important, too, because still that's the main accommodation that's given, you know, for especially for, like, college board and that kind of thing, those big tests. It's very hard to get other accommodations, but it's such a good point that, you know, sometimes you need someone to actually read the question, and then that's also necessary because more time doesn't help with that.

Yeah, helping to phrase things differently, too. So instead of it just being, you know, 10 times 60, if it was, like, 10 buckets of apples times whatever, you know, 60 pies, and all of a sudden, like, tying it to objects that I could kind of conceptualize was helpful. A very strange one that I've heard of other people using, too, was blue paper was a lot easier for me to read off of.

Interesting. Yeah, right, cursive, completely useless. I don't know why they even bothered trying to teach that to me. My parents also wanted me to learn Hebrew at one point, which was a different alphabet going backwards. Not going to happen. So just kind of figure out, like, what we should be prioritizing because spelling, like, my spelling is still horrendous, which is why I now adore my phone, and I speak to text, and it's perfect.

And it, like, autocorrects and fills for me, and I'm, like, done. Never needed to know that anyways. My life has been fine without it. Tell us a little bit about the process then. You said your school actually was able to identify you as being dyslexic? Yeah, yeah. So I was really lucky that my parents had me in a school that was very, like, progressive education. If you think kind of Montessori types, we had woodworking and art and dance and music, and it was very kind of holistic.

And I think they realized pretty quickly that in certain subjects, like, my – I used to write my name backwards sometimes, and it was kind of given on the day, like, entire sentences would go backwards. I would read things upside down sometimes because that was easier for me. Like, it was very, very severe. And they brought in a special tutor whose name is Carl Goodman, if you ever see this. Hi, Carl.

Who is actually the head of a school that specialized in kids with learning disabilities. And he would come in after hours and be one of my, like, tutors. And he taught me, apparently, all these systems that helped kind of, like, rewire my brain to connect things. And I wish I knew what those were, but I was, like, nine years old, and I just remember being really upset that I couldn't go outside and play.

But some of the assignments that he would give my parents were things like we had these huge pieces of paper on the wall at my house where I would draw, like, you know, the letter sticks, and we'd color it. And then at night, I'd have to stand in front of it and, like, make the letter sticks with my body. Because when it was my body, like, doing a sticks or a B or a 9, I could internalize and be, like, oh, I always know what this shape feels like.

So if I'm confused on the paper, I'm, like, well, if I was with the sticks, it goes that way. Got it. And once he kind of, like, internalized things, it was never a problem again. So that only took, like, a couple months, I think, for that issue to be completely solved, which was nice.

How was it as you went further along in school? Did it, because I know we often talk about, you know, because there's usually the more homework loads as you get older. And, you know, even with accommodations, sometimes it can get more challenging. How was that for you?

I really did not like school. I really, really did not like school. So, I mean, again, it was one of those things where, like, science classes where the teacher would read mostly to us, and when it was experiments, I was phenomenal. Like, I was, like, two grades ahead, and I've always been extremely athletic and competitive, and I'm, like, I love working hard and feeling like I'm just, like, destroying the competition. And then I was failing every math class I've ever been in.

I think the highest score I ever got was, like, a C- in a geometry class, and it's because we got to cut things out of paper. And I still was not passing that. And for the record, I feel like a lot of things that kids are being forced to learn in school are never applicable, right? Like, I don't need to learn second-degree algebra. Like, it never came in handy. I wish you'd learned, you know, how to use spreadsheets or pay taxes or anything else.

So I think I was one of those kids who would kind of sit in class and be, like, this is dumb. Why are you teaching me this? Like, teach me something better. So I ended actually exiting school two years early. My parents let me get a special coach to take the Chesapeake, which is like a GED in California. It's an early exit exam. Because I think we all kind of looked at my scores, and it was like, if you stay in the group of everyone who's kind of doing mediocre at this school, you're not going to pass.

But if we just get you help, you're better than everyone at most things. And it let me skip out early and kind of move on with my life. And I'm so glad I did, because trying to learn the way everyone else learned. What's the Albert Einstein quote? It's like, if a goldfish judges its ability to climb a tree, it'll think it's stupid, right? It wasn't the path I was meant to be on.

So I'm really glad they let me leave early, basically. That was the best thing I ever did in school was get out and then educate myself the way that I always wanted to, which was through, like, videos and documentaries and going and doing things in the real world. Like this house that we're in in Bali, I built it myself. Me and my partner designed it. We contracted it, the entire thing ourselves.

Like, we've made four businesses from scratch. I think I'm doing a lot better, my belief, than a lot of kids I went to school with who kind of followed the traditional route of, like, going to college and getting a good degree for something they didn't really want. And now they're paying off debt for something they, you know, could have gone to a trade school and made $60 an hour doing plumbing work, which is totally respectable.

But instead, they felt pressured to follow other people's path. And I think a lot of dyslexic kids or people who just learn differently should maybe have more support and freedom to, like, follow what they're really good at instead of suffering through things that they're never going to be good at. I think it's important to, yeah, to be able to think outside the box and the path a lot of the times, especially, you know, if it's just not working.

It would be a good time now to tell us a little bit more about your career path, because I think it's pretty interesting. It's fun. It's the best thing I've ever done. So, essentially, going back to the ripe age of 16, when I clearly knew my life path, and I think I was also really blessed that I always had such a strong direction of what I wanted, because I think a lot of kids, especially if they're struggling in school, have that thing of, like, I'm not good at anything.

I don't know what I want. And then there's no motivating factor to, like, push and get to the next chapter. But I loved animals. I loved biology. I wanted to be an animal behaviorist. So, I actually took my exit exam, because I wanted to go to South Africa and work on a big cat preserve, and work with, like, lions and animals in the wild, and rehabilitate them. And that was my plan.

And I was like, I'll be there by my 17th birthday. It'll be great. And then, at the same time, my backup plan, which is funny that this was the backup, is I wanted to be a stuntwoman, because my dad was an actor. I grew up in L.A. I'd always been rock climbing, and I was very physical. And I was like, well, I'm not, I mean, take it as it is, I'm not, like, beautiful enough to be, like, one of the best models in L.A., because everyone here is gorgeous.

But I'm prettier than most stunt women. So, if I kind of go into this niche, there will always be work for me. So, every day after high school, I was going to a parkour gym to learn stunts, where I ended up meeting my partner. And that completely changed the path of my life immediately. And we started, like, traveling the world. And he went to Cirque du Soleil. So, I went to Cirque du Soleil, and we spent a couple years touring.

And I became, like, an international circus performer, which had not been the plan, because I thought I was going to be a scientist. But then we essentially moved to Indonesia, not on purpose. We thought we were just traveling all over Asia, and we found this island and realized it was the best place we'd ever been. So, we built a house. We built a gym. We built a bunch of guest villas. We have a bunch of rental properties now.

And we spent six months of the year traveling. And we have now hired enough team and coaches that our business runs without us. So, we're making passive income anywhere we go. And I can basically spend every day doing whatever I want to do at the right page of 25. So, I think I sorted out a pretty good system for myself. Sounds like it. That sounds great. That's like it. Yeah. I wake up every day stoked.

It's good. And I get to do things that I really love. And I've learned how powerful it is to delegate things that I'm not good at. So, like, even if it's just hiring people to do certain systems management for me, like, once I know how the task needs to be done, I will train someone and have them do it. And also, like, the geo-arbitrage of living in a very cheap country means I can hire people for, like, $5 an hour to do things that I just don't want to do, which means my life gets very, like, systematized?

What's the word for that? Streamlined. And frees up my, kind of, mind to do higher-level tasks on the things that I'm really, really good at. So, yeah. Yeah, I think that's good advice for anyone, that kind of delegation. But I guess I'll take it in the direction of compensation and that kind of thing, even though, like I said, I think that's probably a good idea for all of us to do.

What do you find that there's, like, still ways you do compensate? Does it not really, like, or does it just not really come up anymore being dyslexic? Yeah, so I think there's two parts. One is that knowing, kind of, what my triggers were meant, that I created a life that wasn't going to bring a lot of those up, right? So I listen to, like, five hours of podcasts a day and business lectures and stuff, and I almost am never reading it.

But the times when reading and writing is unavoidable, color-coding is still a big thing. So I really brought up my example of, like, my journals still. Everything's, like, color-coded when it's completed. And then for people who are on the podcast, I apologize. But essentially, I color-code things by kind of what makes sense to me. So even on my computer, with all my content creation and editing, any files that are finished have a green tag.

Anything that, you know, it's, like, green, yellow, red, like a stoplight. And that way, I don't have to read labels on what things are. Because, like, the little JPEG titles really mess with me still. So I made all the fonts on my computer really big. Everything's color-coded. And then things like spreadsheets or Google Calendar, which I love, are all color-coded, too. So I can kind of look at a glance and know what activity it is by the color rather than having to read the labels.

And emojis. I use emojis for everything. It's hilarious. Spreadsheets. Business contacts. Like, it's so helpful. Because then you have a visual cue instead of spelling cue.

Like, I don't think this is going to translate well for people on the podcast. But for people who want to see what my Google Calendar looks like, everything is organized by color chart. And all of my payment systems are color-coded, too. So I think learning what works for you and then just scaling off of that is really, really helpful.

On the sort of flip side of this, and this wasn't a question that we put in the list of questions we sent you, but it's, I think, maybe interesting to talk about, you know, we often talk about sort of the downsides of dyslexia and how it makes things harder. Do you feel like dyslexia and sort of the things that come along with that, like maybe creative thinking, outside-the-box thinking, those kinds of things have helped you in your sort of alternative career path?

Completely. Completely, yes. I think I wish I had understood when I was younger that the fact that my brain worked differently than people meant that I would be good at things in ways that other kids were not going to be good at. And I also think having to struggle that hard for, you know, those early years and kind of feeling so badly about myself in some ways made me a really tough kid.

And I see that it can go kind of one way or the other for kids where either they feel really defeated and I'm stupid and I'm not good enough. And I kind of went the other way, which was like, I'll prove to you guys that I'm smarter. Like, I know I don't work the way you do, but like, watch how good I'm going to be. And I think that fierceness really did well for me because once you get over being that severely dyslexic, everything else feels easy, right?

It's like build a house. Like, I couldn't read when I was 12. Like, you got nothing on me. It kind of made me immune to bullying in a way. So I think if you can, if you have a kid, especially who's feeling really bullied or put down, just, I don't know, somehow instilling in them that confidence that like, this will be a gift for you someday as soon as you figure out what the key is.

And it can put you ahead of other people depending on what that skill will become.

Yeah, that's really important advice. And I'm wondering, is there anything else that you think would be helpful for a dyslexic kid to know or that you wish you could tell your younger self? Yeah, I mean, I remember the day I found out that like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking were dyslexic. And I was like, ah, that makes sense. Like, even some of the most brilliant people in the world, their brains work like me.

Like, finding role models for whoever you're right. If your kid wants to be an athlete or a writer or an artist, like finding someone that they can kind of mirror off and being like, I see that it worked for you and I know that there's hope. I think hope and goals are a big one for me, too. So even if your kid is really struggling in school and they hate high school, like, you know, if they're dreading college, give them another option so they have a reason to figure themselves out.

There's another quote, too, that I feel like it just resonates with my personality a lot, but it's that lions don't mind the opinions of sheep, right? Which is basically just like, don't let it get to you. Because I had teachers. I had teachers in school who were like, you're not smart enough to pass. Or I told them when I was like, I'm going to go, you know, travel the world and be a performer.

And they're like, no, you're not. That's not realistic. Like, you should find a better, like a safe job. And I was like, well, I don't want to end up like you. I'm not settling for that. You know, and I just, it didn't, I didn't soak up any of it. I was like, I'll show you. And every once in a while, I will still like email some of my old like teacher groups and be like, here's my third house.

How are you doing? Like, you didn't know. I think the role models around kids are really important. Having supportive parents, having teachers who don't put those, those like negative thoughts in their head. Because I know it can get really repetitive. So yeah, having hope, having role models, having teachers and people that are around you that understand, having really good systems. And just being creative, I think, is a big one. Like, even if you have a system that works for other dyslexic people, it might not work for you.

And just keep going until you find something that sticks. And then really just run with that. That would be my advice. Yeah. Speaking of the negative people, but not just them, maybe just the general population too. What about like anything you, if you, if you could tell the general public anything about dyslexia, what would you want people to know? Because I feel like it's still really, surprisingly, given how common it is, like not that well known.

So yeah, yeah, for sure. I think also a lot of people who don't know what dyslexia is, it kind of falls under the umbrella term of like, oh, like you're just a disabled person. And I'm like, well, I'm like, I learned differently. But also, I think a lot of kids for some reason have like severe ADHD that pairs with dyslexia. And I don't know what that's about. But I think it also leads to the perception that anyone I tell I'm dyslexic, they go, oh, you're really ADHD.

And I go, no, I just have this one thing. It can exist on its own. And I'm sure it presents differently when it pairs with things for people. But also, I think I didn't know as a kid that it can go away. Like it's it greatly has diminished. And if if it was as bad now as it was when I was 12, I think my life could be difficult. But knowing that, especially for women right around the age of like, you know, mid 20s, early 30s, it really calms down.

It's fabulous. Like I every once in a while, especially neon letters and cursive things get a little squiggly. But for the most part, it has completely gone away. And then I'm just left with this like beautiful gift of knowing how to how to work through difficult things. So I wish people understood that it doesn't mean I'm stupid. It doesn't mean I can't do things. I'm just going to do them differently than you.

And I might end up doing them better. So I'm actually a really good person to have on the team because I work differently, which is nice. So, yeah, I think education could really be helpful, especially in schools, especially with with kids who are being told that they're not good enough, because that is entirely not the case. I think that's that's so important for everyone to hear. I mean, dyslexic kids, the general population, teachers, parents.

Yeah.

Do you what do you attribute it? You mentioned that it sort of changed recently. Like, do you attribute that to kind of all the work you did as a kid on the remediation or do you feel like it's shifted for other reasons as an adult? That's a really good question. I wish I had more dyslexic friends to ask about their experience as well. I remember kind of Googling it one day when I was like, this is weird.

Nothing's moved in a couple of months on the page. Like, what's going on? So I think part of it might just be that, like, you know, when your prefrontal cortex is fully developed at 25 or whatever, like it something kind of just clicks and it calmed down a lot, which was nice. But I've also heard, like, like Richard Branson, who's very dyslexic, talks about it, too, that, you know, it was really, really hard until one day it kind of just mellowed out.

And there will always be, like, weird ticks or things that come up. But, yeah, I don't know. I think it might have kind of just outgrown itself, which is lovely. I mean, I'm grateful for what it taught me, but I'm also really glad that, like, I can read a menu now without the prices looking all funky. It's really interesting. So as we wrap up here, I'm just curious if you have any final words for us or if our viewers or podcast listeners could find any of your offerings anywhere that you want to share with us.

Yeah, of course. So on Instagram and all the socials, I am Julia Wild. You guys are welcome to check me out. I am often out fire dancing and frolicking all over the place. Content creation is a big part of my life, and I love sharing that with people because I'm such a visual person. Like, that's really fun. If you're ever coming to Bali, anyone can hit us up. We're welcome to be your tour guides or your friends.

We also have some travel books on Amazon. You can find those through any of our link trees. We have YouTube channels and travel guides for pretty much all over the world. And if anyone has questions or kids who might want someone to talk to, I'm always here as well. I was definitely going through it, and I have come out the other side.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you for having me. It was fun. I've never actually gotten to talk about this before. I feel like I kind of don't tell a lot of people because I don't want to have to explain it. But now that I do get to explain it with people who actually understand, it's been really fun. So thanks for having me. Well, and I feel like what you were saying was very helpful.

So hopefully lots of people will hear it and lots of kids will get your message too. I hope so. I think my team was really creative about the way that they were able to raise me and help me. So I hope those tools can help the next generation of little nuggets. Yeah, that'd be fantastic. Well, thank you again. Thank you.