Creativity Unmasked: An Open Conversation Around Neurodiverse Brains and Creativity
The creativity industry is home to a huge variety of people. Artists, musicians, designers, writers, and so many more. While this means it’s often a place with a sense of community and acceptance, that isn’t always the case.
Celia Nicholas, founder of Austin Studio has opened a conversation around the neurodiverse brains within the creative industries. Her second episode of podcast Creativity Unmasked, sees Celia, joined with Lea Walker, founder of Mrs Walker and Simone Gupta, co-founder of Supermassive speak on the struggles and the triumphs of their own neurodiverse brains and of their loved ones.
Celia created this podcast in the hope to spread awareness of the challenges and joys faced by the neurodivergent community. The podcast encourages people to move forward with empathy towards each other, regardless of how their brain works.
Lea Walker is not neurodiverse herself, but her eldest child is. “I have learned how naive I was to the daily challenges of the neurodiverse population as I have been thrown down a rabbit hole trying to learn all I can to support our eldest with their ASD diagnosis,” she said.
Lea continued to explain that while her knowledge increased, her empathy followed suit. She has learnt how to ‘better show up’ for the community and has been attempting to use her business to help set up neurodiverse talent for success within this industry.
“As my empathy has increased, so has my awareness of the scale of neurodiversity in the creative community. They literally see the world differently and isn’t that what we want creative people to do!?” she continued.
Creativity Unmasked doesn’t shy away from the details - it’s an open conversation between Celia, Lea, Simone and the industry itself. No stone gets left unturned. Simone, who was diagnosed during her adult life details her struggles during her time in university with frank honesty. She initially couldn’t understand why she didn’t quite grasp the system as well as others.
Simone also mentioned that once she transferred to a more practical course it opened up opportunities to understand her strengths and weaknesses. "I found the listen, learn, repeat learning environment really, really difficult. I still had to retake my business accounting exams three times before I passed. I became really clear through that process, about my strengths and the things I found really hard. But at that age I just avoided things I found hard," Simone said on the podcast," she said on the podcast.
Lea describes the podcast as a chance for the industry to better educate themselves and their teams on how neurodiversity can show up in the workplace, and to provide a space to help the communities thrive.
Meanwhile, Celia concluded with some words of advice for her fellow industry professionals.
“I would encourage everyone to embrace diversity in all its forms, and recognise the value that it brings to creativity and innovation. I really believe that fostering inclusive environments where everyone feels empowered to express themselves authentically, can add value to creativity and help drive positive change within the industry,” she said.
