NBC The first season 22 Blind Audition has been released.
There is ‘no doubt’ that “The Voice” coach, Gwen Stefani, is one smart woman. She not only “brought what feels like countless sing-along hits to the radio waves throughout her celebrated career,” but she is also a very savvy businesswoman, according to Forbes. In a recent interview with the businesses magazine, Stefani talked about her new makeup line GXVE Beauty and about how she has overcome obstacles that threatened to hold her back from her current success.
Stefani Found School Challenging
During the Forbes interview, Stefani revealed that her dyslexia and ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) made school very difficult for her. Although she has talked about her learning differences in the media before, the “Hollaback Girl” singer told Forbes that she thinks a lot of people aren’t really aware of what she has gone through.
Stefani has opened up about her learning differences in the past. According to The Daily Mail, “she only ‘discovered’ she had [dyslexia] after her three children were diagnosed. Gwen went onto admit she now realises the disorder had a huge effect on her confidence during the early days of her career, and she unknowingly struggled at school due to the condition.”
In 2020, the former No Doubt frontwoman told Zane Lowe on an Apple podcast segment called “At Home With Gwen Stefani,” “I was a good girl. I didn’t do any bad stuff. 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.”
She’s Not Wrong
According to The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, “People with dyslexia have trouble matching the letters they see on the page with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. And when they have trouble with that step, all the other steps are harder.”
The outlet goes on to say that dyslexia is not a sign of compromised intelligence. “In fact, dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. While people with dyslexia are slow readers, they often, paradoxically, are very fast and creative thinkers with strong reasoning abilities.”
Similarly, ADHD can also cause struggles in school, and can also be associated with creative thinking. According to Scientific American, “ADHD may have negative consequences for academic achievement, employment performance and social relationships. But ADHD may also bring with it an advantage: the ability to think more creatively.”
Stefani is most certainly a creative thinker. However, she wasn’t aware of that until she wrote her first song. The 52-year-old told Forbes, “God just put it in me and it just came out.” Whether it comes to songwriting, businesses, coaching on “The Voice” or choosing a husband who adores her, Stefani has never let any obstacles hold her back.
She and her husband, Blake Shelton, will be competing on “The Voice” in season 22 starting Monday, September 19, at 8 p.m. ET. While they both have “Voice” coaching experience under their belts, this is the first time they will be competing as a married couple, according to NBC Insider.
READ NEXT: Gwen Stefani Exposes Her Insecurity: Says She Is Going to ‘Pray About It’”