Why don’t we hear more about them?
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This is my attempt at guessing part of the reason:
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I do not entirely know the answer. However, I do know that for a long time it was thought that ADHD was only an issue for males, but we now know that is simply not the case. Women have ADHD, too! And, I am certain there are many who have overcome, succeeded and who are thriving with ADHD.
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But why don’t we hear more about them?
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Two of the most successful movie franchises at the moment have women in the lead, doing action flicks as used to be only done by men (Underworld / Resident Evil). Some highly successful women are also becoming self-made millionaires and billionaires, leaving most men in the dust (J. K. Rowling / Sheryl Sandberg).
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So what’s notable about these women and their success stories? They are women!
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Those are stories about ‘women’ succeeding. Any issues, conditions or disorders might be far less important than the fact that a ‘woman’ has ‘succeeded’ or ‘overcome’ the odds for, well, being a women. Credit they rightly deserve! The world hasn’t been exactly fair to women, but they are taking control of their destinies and they are making it, some are far out pacing their male counterparts!
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Kate Beckinsale, the star of the highly successful movie franchise ‘Underworld’, even with her success, recently was quoted as saying in an interview:

Every now and then I will come across the strangest suggestions and the oddest questions. I am sure you have too. One of the strangest suggestions I came across recently is that people, especially children, with ADHD should not look up to, aspire to be or admire successful people with ADHD. I suppose there may be several potential reasons for this idea: Having goals that are too high, fear they will suffer great disappointment aspiring to such greatness or be hurt if they discover that they can’t necessarily be exactly like their heroes.
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I guess we could call those reasonable reasons, but what I am getting from this are a few things that come directly to mind:

• People with ADHD should not be inspired or motivated by people with ADHD who have gone before them and especially not those who have succeeded.

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

“What’s right is what’s left if you do everything else wrong.”

Robin Williams

After learning yesterday from Dana’s Blog that Robin Williams has ADHD I decided to look up some of what Robin Williams has said and what he stands for. Oh my! Robin is a very interesting person to say the least and he holds opinions like flags waving high in the wind. And you know what? If you take a closer look into what he really says and what he really means, you get the idea that this man wants to change the world for the better and if comedy helps do that, well then, so much the better!