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Supporting and empowering young people with dyslexia · Divas That Care Network

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome everyone to the Divas That Care Network.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Candice Gish and I am the host and the founder of the Divas That Care.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am just so excited that each and every one of you has tuned in today.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, our program now has 11 hosts and we have the great opportunity and we're very grateful that we're able to interview women from around the globe now.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so I hope that you're able to check out all of our other shows.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: on the Divas That Care.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: You can also check us out on iTunes when you are driving.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, let's get started, everybody.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: I have an amazing guest today.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this young lady is doing so many great things, and she is calling into my station from Australia, so I'm really excited.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Her name is Gemma.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Gemma, welcome to the program.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Candice.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we had some technical difficulties getting you on today.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I do apologize.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have a lot of chance to chat before our program.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I am very excited to get to know you.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't mind, could you spend a couple of minutes telling us about yourself?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course, absolutely.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my name's Jemima.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I am the current founder and presenter at Dyslexia Demystified, which is an organisation I set up in 2018, actually.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've only been running for just over 12 months.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But essentially, Candice, I'm dyslexic myself and I went through the Australian school system and I'm not quite sure what it's like over there in America, but most certainly in Australia, dyslexic students are not currently very well supported.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was lucky enough, I guess, to have two parents as educators.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that meant that I was able to get a lot of support from home.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up, I guess, going along the journey of initially being not a great student throughout my schooling life.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I really struggled at school.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Reading and writing are certainly not my strengths.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up getting to the point where I wanted to achieve this goal of actually getting into medicine because I'm really, really passionate about biological sciences.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And my lovely parents, less than they, I guess, raised a very stubborn child and were prepared to do whatever it took.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: whatever it took, I guess, to support me to get there.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of my year 12, I ended up actually doing really well and achieving that goal of getting into medicine.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And after those sort of two years of really hard work and a lot of sort of reflection about you know, my learning and that sort of stuff, I kind of thought to myself, well, you know, what about all those other dyslexic students out there who are not, you know, not as fortunate as I and, you know, might need their own support and their own advocate.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess that's essentially what I'm doing with my business at the moment is it's a completely student-led organization, you know, where a student I guess, a social enterprise who, you know, is for dyslexic students and run by dyslexic students.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we advocate for their needs.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we do that primarily through, you know, school-based presentations and also through one-on-one mentoring as well.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I do want to apologize.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: I pronounced your name incorrectly, and I'm sorry about that.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Jemima,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: No worries at all.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's Jemima, yes.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's an easy dyslexic mistake to make, so it's like it's quite appropriate.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: I just love it.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, when I was reading about...
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: a little bit about your bio.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I found this quite fascinating.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was actually talking to my daughters and our program started because I wanted to be able to interview amazing women around the world.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it was basically for myself, I was being selfish because I wanted my daughters, because I homeschool four girls in Canada, and I wanted them to be able to listen to amazing women like yourself and what you're going through.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm reading your bio and one of my daughters is also dyslexic.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I found this quite, I really want to chat with you because of that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: But another reason is because I have three other daughters that play water polo and swim.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, oh my goodness, this amazing woman is doing so many great things.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So for any of our listeners, you play water polo and I thought that was absolutely amazing because before we had actually gotten into that sport, you know, not a lot of people knew what it was that I was in.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just a great little thing that I was doing.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like this was meant to be and I was really excited about that.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's fantastic.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think, you know, We always need more water polo players.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if your daughters are listening, welcome to the club if you're dyslexic.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's important to sort of embrace the dyslexic family.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But, yeah, I guess for me, you know, I do have...
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: quite a rich sporting background.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was initially a, you know, sort of national level swimmer and that sort of thing.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and then eventually switched over to water polo.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I guess it was probably easier to identify as the sporty kid than as the kid who couldn't read.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it was sort of a crucial part of my journey, yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those ones that you love to share with others because it is so inspiring.
• 5:35
  UNKNOWN: Yeah.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love it here.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's talk about this because when I went through your website, and you know what, I want you to, for any of our listeners, can you please just share the website so while they're listening to the program, they can check it out at the same time?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So my website is www.dyslexiademystified.org.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we also run a YouTube channel, which most of our information is actually delivered through because, you know, I think it's sort of ironic that in this world, you know, a lot of the supportive resources out there for dyslexics are not actually accessible because they're all written down.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess a lot of what I do is, you know, trying to make those resources accessible.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of my resources are are in video form, and they can be found on YouTube under my channel, which is also called Dyslexia Demystified.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So people can absolutely go along and have a look at that as well.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And what a brilliant way to do it, because I think that's the challenges that we do face, isn't it?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And being a parent of a child with dyslexia, I understand because I know that she struggles and tries to go through this and tries to find things, and she's very much...
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: a visual person.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: So now she goes out and she tries to locate things and watch things to teach yourself how to do so many things out there.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always inspiring.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: The more that I watch her, the more I'm inspired by her for what she's doing.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely, you know, along my journey, it's definitely become a lot about self-teaching and that, unfortunately, probably due to the gaps in the current education system to support these students.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, we do, you know, sort of have to find our own ways of learning.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, me, myself, I'm also quite a visual learner and quite kinesthetic as well, you know, quite hands-on.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think fostering that sort of that love of learning and also fostering that sort of ability to critically reflect and evaluate your own sort of learning potential and the ways that you learn best is a pretty key part of my schooling journey.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So can I ask you, do you do this basically in a local area or do you do this throughout Australia?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So at the moment, well, I initially started the business out of Melbourne, which is where I'm originally from.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then after I moved to Queensland to study medicine, it sort of became a bit of an issue.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided I would push the expansion a bit earlier and ended up expanding into Queensland as well.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm primarily operating out of Queensland and Victoria at the moment.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess...
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've, you know, I started to sort of delve into the international sort of stuff as well.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I did a bit of work with Japan last year and that sort of thing.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, sort of dabbling in little bits and pieces, you know, sort of, it's very organic.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think the business process and I just sort of jumped in with two feet and found myself here, I feel like sometimes.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that's sort of the way it ended up.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love it.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the Divas by Care is an international and global program.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Why I'm asking is because a lot of our listeners are from around the world, and I want to know, you do have a program that you do a lot of one-on-one student mentoring.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can our listeners get a hold of you if they have children or they know somebody that would require your services?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely they can.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of my, you know, I'm...
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: obviously living in Brisbane at the moment for my study, but pretty much all of my clients at the moment are still based in Melbourne or around the world.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I do a lot of mentoring over Skype or Zoom or any of those sort of platforms.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, in fact, kids actually end up often preferring to do it through one of those platforms, you know, preferring to do it by technology, I think, because it's not quite as intimidating.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: But, yeah, most certainly people can still access that mentoring service, you know, even internationally.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have, like, a group for a lot of these kids to be a part of so that they're meeting other students, or is this kind of you do just the one-on-one?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: So
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: most definitely I think, you know, where I want to end up eventually is, you know, getting it to a place where, you know, we have a really large online platform.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And at the moment, you know, we're sort of getting there.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, at the moment we're sort of primarily using our YouTube to access those students and also our Instagram and Facebook as well.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So people can find us at Just Like City Mystified on Facebook and also Just Like City Mystified on Instagram.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we're finding that a lot of young people are particularly trying to access us through Instagram just because it is, you know, obviously a lot more visual and it's, you know, a really good visual platform for these students.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of them we're finding are using more the Instagram anyways.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Facebook is sort of an older people's generation, you know, sort of platform.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I guess that's sort of what we're trying to go with.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: That is brilliant.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me a little bit about the stuff that you do with parents.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know that this is a completely different part of it, but I know a lot of parents are constantly searching.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're trying to, you know, learn more.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you help the parents?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really good question.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think particularly early on it was important for us to kind of identify our niche in terms of where we could help people and we absolutely, you know, we want to help our parents and our teachers and that's, you know, become a really vital part of our business.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we run a lot of community-based events where we, you know, access parent communities through schools and hold sort of a community event in the town hall as such and just sort of invite all these families along and we do have a lot of parent presentations that we do through the school system, but we also do one-on-one parent consultations as well.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we have that student mentoring service of spending time one-on-one with the student and helping them to find the strategies and technologies that will best suit them as a learner.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: But we most definitely also have a parent consultation service, and that essentially will mean parents essentially talking to us as almost like a bit of a translation service between us and their young person you know at home you know how what's sort of going on with them if they're displaying particular behaviors where might those behaviors be coming from what are they sort of going through through emotionally you know through this whole learning journey of theirs and that's become a really critical part that a lot of our parents can really touch base with but I guess you know at the moment in Australia, and I can only speak for Australia, unfortunately, but there tends to be a lot of support already existing for parents of dyslexic students, but there's not a lot of support for the students themselves, and that's sort of where we've diversified the market, yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: How do you find the time to do all this?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know that you're in university, and how do you have time?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very good question.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I don't have time is the point.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not true.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, scheduling has become a really important part of my life.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, being, I guess, naturally quite a disorganized person as a dyslexic is, you know, my mum was...
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: really quite stern in making sure that I was, you know, having those key organisational skills in place.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes a lot of time management to be able to, you know, run a business and have a full-time study load as well.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my life is a little bit crazy in the fact that, you know, I'm sure a lot of business owners can sort of relate to this, you know, sort of one minute of running to a meeting and the next minute I'm running to a hospital to go deliver a baby and that's literally what it's like for me.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's very exciting.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: life, Candice, but probably not a sustainable one.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily enough for me, I've got enough university breaks and things in the year to sort of keep me grounded and be able to spend time on the things that I'm passionate about and want to spend time on.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: I love what you are doing.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You are such an inspiration.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're an inspiration to your generation, you know, and not just to them, but to all of us.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I listen to amazing and I young divas.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it gives me hope for the future because I listen to you and all the things you're doing and how you're helping and inspiring so many people out there.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I want to thank you so much for doing that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: You're so kind.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still getting used to, I think, you know, accepting compliments and that sort of thing.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to me, I just started out, you know, with me and a PowerPoint, essentially, and it wasn't a great PowerPoint back in its first stages.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to sort of be talking to you is a little surreal at the moment because, you know, I guess in my head I'm getting a bit of that imposter syndrome that I'm still, you know, that 18-year-old back with her PowerPoint speaking to a whole lot of staff who just unknowingly rocked up to my PD.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's quite surreal to be talking to you at this moment.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, you know what?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: It is my pleasure.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was really excited when I had the opportunity to hear about you and your story.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, you're exactly the amazing young people, woman that we want to showcase on our program.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because of you that we are going to continue to do this.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Our show has been running now for nine years.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I just absolutely love it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I have the opportunity to interview, I get more inspired and more empowered by all of what you're doing.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know what, Jonathan?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the opportunity.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, to anyone out there who is, you know, an aspiring, you know, young female entrepreneur wanting to make, you know, a genuine difference in the world, I think, you know, it's so important that we share our stories and uplift others as well because, you know, in this sort of cutthroat world of business, I think the previous model was to, you know, sort of every man for himself, I guess.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in this changing new dynamic world of business, it's going to be you know, every, every woman and man, you know, collaborating together and, and, and uplifting each other.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's really great what you're doing and, and I'm sure it will inspire a lot of young, young females out there.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, then that's, I was going to just ask you, what would you love to leave our listeners today?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I think you really did that.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope that you have a chance to join our Facebook group.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: We have a tribe there.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Changemakers Cafe, for any of the amazing women out there that want to lock arms with other women, that's our hope that you can do that.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope you're a part of that and you come and join us there.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, I will.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll join today.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's very spontaneous, but that's sort of what you've got to be in this world, I think.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jump in with two feet, so I'll be there.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wonderful.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and we will definitely connect you with all of our tribe of empowering, inspiring women.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you again.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you, all of you for tuning into the Divas That Care podcast.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as I said, we have 11 hosts now on the Divas That Care and we're so excited when we have the opportunity to be inspired and empowered by our guests.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope that you had a great time today.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I hope that you go out there and do something kind for somebody else.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, you can always listen to us on iTunes and at So thank you to each and every one of you that tuned in today, and thank you to my amazing guests.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: I hope everybody has a fantastic day, and we will talk to you all soon.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye for now.