Jennifer Aniston reveals she has dyslexia
Best known for her role as Rachel on the iconic television series Friends, actress Jennifer Aniston revealed in a recent interview for the Hollywood Reporter that she has dyslexia.
Aniston says that she was diagnosed with dyslexia in her twenties:
"The only reason I knew [I had it] was because when I went to get my reading glasses ... I had to read a paragraph and they asked me a questionnaire with 10 questions about what I had read, and I think I had three correct ones."
The revelation "changed my life," Aniston says in the interview. When she was young she was not a good student due to difficulties related to her undiagnosed dyslexia. She just thought that she "wasn't smart enough" and she "couldn't hold back anything." But with her new discovery came a new knowledge of herself: "I felt as if all my childhood traumas, tragedies, dramas had been explained."
Her battle at her school pushed her to develop "innate humor." She channeled her humor into making friends at school and eventually acting.
Today, Aniston is engaged to actor-writer Justin Theroux. Her career is at the top. She received a Golden Globe and SAG nomination (as well as critical acclaim) for her portrayal of an accident victim in the new film, Cake.
For her admirers, Aniston's dyslexia may be just one more confirmation that she is "a real person with a beating heart" as the Hollywood Reporter puts it. More and more Hollywood stars, like Aniston, are sharing her stories. She read inspiring quotes from celebrities who are talking about her learning and attention issues.
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