My name is Maddie, I’m 22 and a Graduate Actor from York. I’ve been performing since the age of 5 in both community and professional theatre. Performing was not just a hobby but a huge escape because I wasn’t academic. Growing up I struggled massively through school, teachers referred to me as a “Bright” child because I was social, energetic and loved getting involved, however, they didn’t recognise my “Bright” personality to be ADHD which meant when I struggled in class, the lack of focus looked like daydreaming and lack of concentration looked lazy and therefor received no support. I continued to have no support through the rest of my education until my final year of uni and was very proud to graduate with a 2:1. The following August I was finally diagnosed.

I wanted to become an ambassador because a lot of people don’t recognise the symptoms of ADHD in girls so my goal is to go into schools, colleges and even universities and hold teacher training days to help staff learn and understand the signs in young girls and advocate for the pupils so that girls don’t go through what I did.