“The President of the United States, Gavin Newsom, admitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia. Everything about him is dumb,” stated President Trump in March of 2026. So many things about this are wrong. For one, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, is not the President of the United States. Moreover, the insinuation that a learning disability makes someone unintelligent is not only inaccurate but also harmful. As someone with severe dyslexia, I spent much of my academic life questioning my own intelligence. However, I have now come to realize that it is my biggest strength, not weakness.
According to the Colorado Department of Education, dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition and decoding, resulting in struggles with reading and writing. Dyslexia mainly affects regions of the brain such as the left temporo-parietal cortex, the part of the brain that handles phonological processing; the occipito-temporal cortex, otherwise known as the “letterbox of brain” as it is associated with automatic word recognition and reading fluency; and the left inferior frontal gyrus, involved in language production and articulation, according to the National Library of Medicine. Dyslexia impairs the functions of both the left temporo-parietal cortex and the occipito-temporal cortex, but it adaptates by relying on the left inferior frontal gyrus.
When I was in third grade at The Windward School, a school for children with language-based learning disabilities on the Upper East Side, we were taught to think of this adaptation like a car on a highway. The school counselor explained to the group of wide-eyed nine-year-olds, “There are stops your car needs to make in order to complete tasks such as reading. However, while most people can take the direct route to these places, people with learning disabilities have blocks in their highway, forcing them to take a longer, more difficult route.”
Hearing this at nine years old, I was envious of my friends who didn’t have to take the longer routes. However, as I have gotten older, I am thankful to have the brain with the blocked highways, as taking a different route has allowed me to see the world from a completely different perspective.
According to Upbility Publications, an independent publication specializing in research based educational and therapeutic resources, not only do people with dyslexia lean on their left inferior frontal gyrus, but also their right hemisphere in order to understand language through visual-spatial, holistic and artistic networks. Relying on the right hemisphere allows people with dyslexia to excel at understanding and processing visual data at a higher level than neurotypicals. According to Dyslexia Support South, a comprehensive website providing information and strategies to people with dyslexia and their loved ones, this allows them to engage in “big picture thinking,” which is a holistic approach to solving a problem in which an individual considers things such as context, long-term goals and future possibilities. Therefore, helping people with dyslexia see patterns and connections between ideas that neurotypicals often miss. Additionally, since their brains are used to taking a non-linear approach to problems, or a different highway if you will, they can see them from a unique perspective and solve them in innovative ways. Finally, people with dyslexia have strong episodic memories, or memories of personal experiences, which they use to construct narratives, analyze problems and predict outcomes. Therefore, helping them to excel at storytelling.
In my sophomore year of high school I was talking to my English teacher about my frustrations with my dyslexia and she turned to me and said “Yes, your dyslexia will make certain tasks much harder for you than your peers. But don’t forget that it is the reason you are able to have such creative insights. That is a gift.” This made me realize that my dyslexia is the very thing that allows me to see patterns in books that other people miss, approach math problems from a different perspective and preserve through any setback. Simply put, I would not be the student or person I am today without my dyslexia.
According to Dyslexic Advantage, a nonprofit organization dedicated to highlighting the strengths of dyslexia, these strengths enable people with dyslexia to have very successful careers in the creative arts, entrepreneurship and engineering. Although people with dyslexia often find great success in these careers, these strengths can help in any pathway. In fact in the United Kingdom, The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which are known as the “UK’s FBI,” actively seek out those who are dyslexic, because of their ability to think outside the box and solve problems creatively.
Despite the recent progression in dyslexia acceptance, it hasn’t always been this way. When I was attending Windward, I had a babysitter who also had dyslexia. He would tell me stories on the way to school about when he was a kid and how teachers would often get frustrated and yell at him, believing he was simply unintelligent and unteachable. I will never forget the proud look on his face when I would tell him all the things I was learning at school, realizing how far we have come as a society. He would smile and let me ramble on for the whole way home.
However, we still have ways to go. With the President being so grossly uneducated to make extremely ableist statements, it is imperative to educate ourselves and those around us about these learning disabilities by listening to dyslexics stories, call out ableist comments and question our own assumptions about those with learning disabilities. Above all, ensure that by the end of it everyone knows: Yes, dyslexia is a disability, but it’s not a weakness, it’s a strength.
