Something is fundamentally wrong when 15% of the population is neurodiverse, yet neurodiverse people are at 8x more likely to be unemployed compared to a neurotypical person and be at higher risk of suffering from mental health conditions.
Kim To
Kim To, a Hatch Launchpad graduate who is currently on the Hatch Incubator programme, is on a mission to build a world where neurodiverse people feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to the world.
After being diagnosed with ADHD in December 2020, she was frustrated with the lack of awareness and support for adults with neurodiversity and decided to do something about it.
Kim not only has ADHD, but was also diagnosed with dyslexia when she was studying at university, and is on the waiting list for an autism assessment.
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The lack of support with her diagnosis caused her to develop anxiety and depression as she struggled to navigate her personal and professional life with her neurodiversity.
She realised that something was missing, in that organisations were not aware of how to accommodate and support neurodiverse individuals, and neurodiverse people didn’t know how to advocate for themselves.
To close the gap, Kim trained as an Accredited ADHD coach and set up Own Your Flair – a neurodiverse coaching platform.
The mission is to support neurodiverse people in their professional and private lives through coaching, training and advocacy.
Kim also supports organisations to be more neurodiverse and disabled-friendly through workshops carefully designed to inspire conversations and change.
Own Your Flair
Kim has hope for the work that she is doing as she recalls:
“I delivered a public speaking event where I spoke about my experiences with a late ADHD diagnosis and my journey of healing after I learnt to advocate and embrace my differences. I had people coming up to me after the talk in tears telling me how much they felt heard and seen. That is when I knew I needed to keep doing what I was doing.”
As well as continuing to coach neurodiverse clients, Kim has aspirations to use tech to scale training programmes aimed at educating neurodiverse people with skills and confidence.
The long-term goal is to build Own Your Flair as a tech platform to be the one-stop shop for organisations to outsource their support for neurodiverse employees.
Kim believes that organisations from small start-ups to large corporations want to support neurodiverse employees, but don’t know where to start or often don’t have the in-house expertise.
The aspiration is that similarly to how all organisations have dedicated support for mental health concerns, there should be dedicated support for disability and neurodiversity in all organisations.
Entrepreneurship can be scary and lonely. Hatch provided me with the community and training needed for me to have the confidence to set up my coaching practice. It helped me feel less alone and helped me fill the gaps with knowledge or skills that I was lacking. It is the only supportive, female-focused and diverse entrepreneurship space that I have been a part of.
Kim To