Gwen Stefani Has Dyslexia — Here’s How Her Kids Helped Discover It
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Gwen Stefani recently shared that she suffers from dyslexia. The Voice coach made the discovery about herself through her own kids, who deal with similar difficulties.
Gwen opened up about her experience with dyslexia in an interview with Zane Lowe in his Apple Music At Home With series. Read on to find out what Gwen had to say about herself and her three sons.
Gwen Stefani Discovers She Has Dyslexia
Gwen shares three kids with her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale — 14-year-old Kingston, 12-year-old Zuma, and 6-year-old Apollo. She said she “discovered” that she has dyslexia when her sons started having difficulty with reading.
“And I feel like a lot of the problems that I have had or even decisions that I’ve made for myself stem from that, because now the children — obviously, it’s all genetic — they have some of those issues,” she said, according to People.
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Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects the part of the brain which processes language. Symptoms include difficulty reading, spelling, or pronouncing words. According to the Mayo Clinic, it tends to run in families.
“But now they get all these benefits. They have these incredible teachers and schools and they don’t have to have shame about it,” Gwen said of her kids. “They understand that their brain functions in a different way. All of our brains do, you know what I mean?”
How Has Dyslexia Affected Gwen’s Life?
Gwen said that, although she was a “good girl” growing up, she “failed at school.” She added, “It was just really hard for me to function in that square box of school that everybody was supposed to be understanding. And my brain didn’t work like that; it still doesn’t. But it works in different ways that are probably a gift that other people can’t do.”
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She also said she thinks her dyslexia caused her to depend more on her No Doubt bandmate Tony Kanal. “I didn’t know any of this until now, but I think that I didn’t have any confidence in myself, at the time,” she said, “but when I would write a song or I would get on stage, it just felt so right and the only thing that was going right for me.”
Gwen also gave a shout-out to her fiancé Blake Shelton, saying she’s in a “different chapter” of her life. “Life’s gotten so good right now actually having a best friend who I can be in love with and just share everything with and trust,” she said.
