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compensates. Sometimes it helps if you can speak to other people about their dyslexia and how they live with it.
    Famous dyslexics include:
Keira Knightley
Will Smith
Orlando Bloom
Keanu Reeves
Tom Cruise
Jamie Oliver
Tommy Hilfiger
David Bailey
Andy Warhol
John Lennon
    Being Dyslexic is one of the largest dyslexia forums. It has thousands of members and you can chat to them. It’s free and the site also includes an online self-test and lots of resources including study guides. The site also has blogs and a Facebook group.
    www.beingdyslexic.co.uk
    From day one I made sure I talked to absolutely everyone and I made lots of friends.
    I could have gone to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London. My sister Aimee went there for a while and my mum had gone there when she was little. It was a performing-arts school for kids. I didn’t want to go. Fuck, no. I didn’t want to go to do ballet or whatever. I appreciate the ballet. I think it’s beautiful and I can understand why someone would want to be a dancer. But fuck, not me.
    Instead, during those first few weeks at Pipers Corner School, I was so conscious of the fact that I came from a family with a famous dad that I would lie about what I wanted to be when I was older. I was so desperate to fit in that I would say I was going to be a nursery-school teacher. Also, I thought that if I said I wanted to be a rock star like my dad they would laugh in my face. But I had sort of planned in my head that I would become a businesswomanbecause that’s what my mum was. I’d watched her at her desk doing all her filing and paperwork and I wanted to do the same sort of thing. Despite the dyslexia, I loved a good school project. I couldn’t get enough of them. I was meticulous with how I planned them. You name it, I bet I did a bloody project on it. Eggs, chairs, Indian spices … I once spent hours patiently sticking tiny grains of spice into my exercise book. My parents never helped me with my projects. No. Never. Although Mum was very encouraging when we were at school. She would buy all the arts and craft things and made sure we had everything we needed, but we would do the work ourselves. I absolutely loved covering my books in crisp and sweet wrappers. And tinfoil … what the hell! When was the last time you ever heard of anyone doing that?
    I used to buy TVHits magazine because you got free stickers. I would cover my folders with pictures of Ant & Dec, Boyzone, the Spice Girls and NSYNC. Much to my father’s dismay, I really fucking love pop music.
    Science and history were my best subjects because they’re fact, fact, fact. You can’t change fact, can you? Either it is or it isn’t. Of course people can change history. But the facts always remain the same.
    You can forget maths. It made no bloody sense to me at all. It was the dyslexia. I would get all the numbers the wrong way round. On my report card one year it said: ‘Maths is not Kelly’s favourite subject. But when she concentrates, she does very well.’
    I had no problem with making my voice heard. On one report card, the teacher put under oralcommunication: ‘Kelly has excellent communication skills.’ No shit! Blame my parents. Years of being on tour with my father meant I could talk to anyone of any age.
    When I was at school I mothered everyone. Fuck knows why. I was very good at sorting everyone out and being Miss Practical. We had a school newspaper and I was the agony aunt. My classmates would write in with their problems about homework or bullying or whatever. I would print one of the letters with my answer. I loved it. I think I get my need to mother from my own mother. She’s very good at just getting on with things and being practical.
    I am not joking when I say that I have absolutely everything from my school days. There’s a massive trunk outside my bedroom at Welders in the UK crammed full of all my exercise books, reports, projects, letters … That’s Mum for you. She’s a bloody