There are many misconceptions when it comes to dyslexia and one of them is that it affects your intelligence.
It doesn't. Like many similar conditions it just means you learn in a different way.
Several men in my family (for some reason dyslexia is more common in men than women) including my younger brother have dyslexia.
My brother has always had trouble with reading and writing as dyslexia will cause words and letters to look like they are moving.
However not being a great speller does not mean that he is not intelligent and in fact now only in his twenties runs his own business.
Judging the intelligence of a dyslexia person by how well they read or spell is unfair to all of the other ways in which they are gifted and it is something that ten-year-old Sophia is trying to fight against.
Sophia from Roseville California was diagnosed with dyslexia and once she found out it empowered her to fight for herself and now wants to help others.
The ten-year-old created a passionate video where she demonstrates that while she might not be great at spelling she is very creative and smart.
Sophia asks in the video that teachers focus on the content of the work she creates rather than just the spelling errors and see beyond her dyslexia.
Since it was first posted Sophia has inspired many teachers to rethink how they view children with a different way of learning;
"I am a 6th grade Social Studies teacher in Allen, Texas. Thank you, Sophia, for taking the time to educate us. We had a training a couple days ago on dyslexia and our DT teacher couldn't get this video to load at the time, so I just now watched it. I totally believe you will achieve great things in your life."
I think Sophia is spreading a very important message and hope it helps other children with dyslexia to see that they are not alone and to never question how clever they are.
