Our story
All Minds Count is a passion project born from a harrowing experience involving my family. As I processed the trauma, I understood that the path to healing required me to find a higher purpose for my pain. So, I vowed to do whatever I could to prevent our story from happening to other families. By doing so, I hope to contribute to creating a more neuroinclusive world.
We are a proud family of disruptors. As entrepreneurs, my husband and I have been credited with disrupting long standing mindsets in our industry. We see “different” as a positive, and we believe the world needs less of the same, and more of the not so same.
As we had kids, the apples didn’t fall far from the tree. Our boys are authentic originals. Camilo’s Attention is Dialed to a Higher Dimension (ADHD). Rocco has sticky thoughts (anxiety). At home, we refrain from using the terms “deficit” and “disorder”. We have always told them they are “certified unique”. They are bright and loving humans who deserve to grow up in a world that refers to them with positive terminology. We wish for a world that appreciates their amazing qualities, and that offers them all the opportunities they need to thrive without the constraints of labels.
Unfortunately, in today’s normalizing societies, people who sit on the outside of the so-called normal often get ostracized. They are subject to neurodiscrimination - a form of discrimination that is so overlooked, the word doesn’t even exist in today’s dictionary. These individuals are easily labeled, misunderstood, and excluded because of how they talk or don’t talk, because of the things they say or do not say, or because of the way they learn. ADHD impulsive kids are easily labeled as offensive or disruptive. Anxious kids are labeled as anti-social. There’s a label with a negative connotation for everyone who falls outside of “normal”, and that adds up to a whole lot of kids and adults.
As this project took shape, and I shared my own story, others began to share theirs with me. In some these stories, primary schools treat neurodivergent kids as if they were criminals. In other stories, parents ask their private school administration to remove a kid from a class roster because he/she ‘distracts’ their own children’s education. I’ve also seen the story of parents threatening to call the police when a verbally impulsive fourth grader parrots a harsh dialogue he saw on TV. The pain and suffering inflicted on kids and their families as a consequence of living in neurodiscriminatory, neurobiased societies are shockingly prevalent and traumatic.
We have come a long way to understand discrimination as an unjust and damaging exclusion of humans based on skin color, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation. It is now time that we open our eyes and minds to the ever-present undercurrent of discrimination based on how people’s minds work. Neurodiscrimination is a reality, and it is not okay. So much of it is engrained in the way we relate to and speak about each other. It is so much part of our language that we don’t even notice it anymore. It has become part of who we are as individuals and as societies, and we have, consciously or not, passed it down from generation to generation.
I believe that the world is ready to break this cycle. Creating neuroinclusive societies is within reach. It begins with all of us embodying the belief that all minds are created differently and deserve to be valued equally. It’s warming up to the idea that, when we perceive different behaviors in others, it may very well be a unique expression of brain traits we cannot see or understand. It is about reflecting, empathizing and valuing before labeling.
It is about each of us choosing to be [kind to all minds].
All Minds Count is inspired by millions of true stories of [never] normal humans and their families, and their quest to create a world that accommodates all. It’s about a new neuroinclusive set of beliefs expressed through a new language. We invite you to [speak it] with us.