The next person I would like to discuss is American actress Bella Thorne, most of us probably know her best from her role in the Disney Channel show Shake it Up.
Bella was born and raised in Pembroke Pines, Florida in a lower-class family. Her father died when she was 7 and her mom raised Bella and her 3 siblings by herself. She says in interviews that’s party of the reason she started to model and act as a child was to help earn money for the family. She first noticed she had a problem in first grade she couldn’t read as well as the other kids in her class, she would mix up letters like b & d and m & w. Bella was diagnosed with Dyslexia, she was bullied a lot as a child for not being able to reading being called stupid and dumb by her peers. Bella would start home schooling after this due to the bullying and continued to cry to get better at reading. Her mother eventually enrolled her in Sylvan Learning Center which was so helpful for her (My Benchmark) she was eventually reading ahead of her grade level. Bella Thorne learned to face problems and not run away from them. Her family would also try to help out making her read everything around her from menus and cereal boxes to road sides everywhere they went. Bella as a child actress would get so nervous when she auditioned during table reads because she was so scared she’d mess up the read but she was progress pasted that now as an adult.
Studies show that around 1 in 5 students have some form of learning disability and is different for everybody. Disney who hired Bella to play Cece in the show Shake it Uphad her character also be Dyslexia so to better relate to those viewers out there who have a learning disability. It was great with views Bella says in interviews that she has gotten so many letters from fans who have Dyslexia and how much they could relate to her and her character and it was nice to see on TV. Bella likes to remind people both in interviews and through the show that Dyslexia does not affect your intelligence, it just makes people learn differently.
Personal I thought it was really cool when I was younger and I saw that not just Cece her character was Dyslexic but Bella actually was in real life. Along with talking about her disability in commercials. It was one of those you’re not alone moments to know that someone famous you see on tv has the same struggles as you. To quote Bella Thorne “Dyslexia makes things hard for me but not impossible”.
I remember watching Bella Thorne on Disney Channel’s “Shake it Up” when I was younger and absolutely loving her. I also remember hearing about her dyslexia and how she came to live with it daily. I think it’s great that she is unafraid to talk about her condition and share her story, to show that dyslexia is not enough to stop you. I’m interested to see what other celebrities you write about because Bella Thorne was the only one I had known about already. Looking forward to seeing who you write about next!
Hi, I am writing an essay for college (Colorado College) on Bella Thorne. I was wondering where you got the evidence on her learning to read through Sylvan Learning Center. I believe it, I just want to do more research on it. It makes sense that she used a tutoring company, as no one learns how to overcome dyslexia just by reading more, as Disney tries to portray.