Dyslexia Awareness Week: My Dyslexia Story | Glaze & Save

Tanya Ewing, PhD(hd) FRSA is the CEO and Director of Glaze & Save. She writes here about her experiences living with dyslexia and how she has overcome the difficulties and embraced the different way that she sees the world.

I have been living with dyslexia all my life, but growing up in the 70s and 80s, it took some time for it to be recognised.

I think my school realised that I couldn’t write at around primary four, up until which point school had been fine for me. It was the mid-seventies, and so little was known about dyslexia, so when I was moved from my class into remedial classes, I was very upset and didn’t really understand why.

I focused on activities outside school to help increase my self-worth. I was very sporty and participating activities like the Brownies, where I gained lots of certificates and accolades. This gave me the strength to keep believing in myself where my school was unable to. The people I socialised with outside school didn’t know that I was in remedial classes.

Secondary school was very difficult and turbulent for me. I was given a lot of freedom but what I needed what guidance and help. When it came time for me to set my exams I was advised that I wouldn’t be able to sit any exams and that I should go onto a vocational college. This isn’t what I wanted to do, so I went on to two other secondary schools, including private school and private tuition. I eventually level school in 6th year with six O Levels and one Higher, which was a huge achievement for me.

It wasn’t until I entered the working world that I started to better understand the issues that I was facing with dyslexia.

One of my first jobs out of school was working for the AA in insurance sales. I made so many spelling and grammar mistakes in my work that they threatened to sack me, but I was the seventh-best sales person in the whole of the UK, so after much pleading from me, they decided to keep me on, but on the condition that I saw my GP to be assessed.

When I was assessed I found out I had a reading age of nine, I was 19. Suddenly realising what the problem was and that there were things that could be done made such a difference to me.

I continued to be a really sporty person, but in 1999 I contracted Lyme Disease. I battled with the condition for six or seven years, and still struggle with it today. But the biggest thing it did for me was getting me out of the mentality that I was a “sporty” person who couldn’t (and wouldn’t) undertake any academic achievements. Because I could no longer carry out my sporting activities, I knew I had to start using my brain, and so I started attending night classes at Perth College.

I had my lightbulb moment when I received a huge gas bill, and I wanted to figure out how to understand it and reduce my energy consumption. There was nothing on the market that I could buy that would show me how much energy I was actually consuming, so I took the leap and decided to design an energy monitor display that would show people their energy usage. I definitely think that this was a product of the way my mind works! I learn and understand particularly well with pictures and images, and thought that other people might benefit from being able to see a visual representation of their energy consumption.

Despite being registered disabled, pregnant, not having worked for seven years, not having an inventing track record or experience in the energy sector, not being IT literate or having attended university or college, as well as being dyslexic, I managed to turn my idea into the first energy monitor on the market, called Ewgeco (now Netthings). I also successfully lobbied the government to ensure that all new homes would have energy monitors installed in them.

In 2014, I embarked on a new journey with my new company Glaze & Save. Once again, we are industry disruptors, award winners and innovators.

I’m still dyslexic, I still struggle. But my customers and colleagues understand where I am and utilise the strengths that I have rather than focusing on my weaknesses. The advice that I could give to other people experiencing dyslexia, is not to be afraid to say that you’re dyslexia, although some old fashioned attitudes do still exist. Love that you are different, embrace your unique skills, and get out of your comfort zone once in a while. You’ll find that you can live a full life while embracing your differences with nothing holding you back.