Maya Hawke opens up about dyslexia calling her condition ‘one of the great blessings in my life’

Actress and singer Maya Hawke opened up about having dyslexia in a new interview, calling it ‘one of the greatest blessings in my life.’

The 22-year-old Stranger Things star released her first album Blush in August, revealing new details about having dyslexia in a new interview with NPR. 

When interviewer Scott Simon said he heard she ‘suffers from dyslexia,’ she pointed out, ‘I wouldn’t say suffer. I would say it is, like, one of the great blessings of my life in a lot of ways. 

The daughter of actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman admitted she did get ‘kicked out of school for not being able to read when I was a kid.’

‘I went to a special school for kids with learning disabilities. And it took me a long time to learn how to read, and I still am limited,’ she admitted.

‘But the wonderful thing about today’s world is that there are so many options. There’s something about having had a limitation in regards to my ability to produce and take in stories that made me even more determined to love them and understand them and grow in them,’ she added.

The actress and singer also said that, ‘it was deeply difficult, you know, to be in the slow class.’

‘Every grade that went by, you get dropped down into a lower and lower reading group,’ she added.

Hawke also said that other kids would find out about being in the lower classes and there was ‘bullying, ‘but my parents did a wonderful job of encouraging me to be creative.’

She added that her father Ethan Hawke directed the music video for her song Coverage, which was made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘COVID had just really hit. So I made – I did these live videos with my family,’ she began.

‘But people call it a music video, I think, because, like, my dad is such a special filmmaker that even with, like, an iPhone and 10 minutes to prepare and me being, like, everyone we’re going to play the song in the barn; like, Dad, will you make a video? – his brain turns on and he goes, OK,’ Hawke added of her father.

She added that the title of her album Blush came from a lyric in the song Coverage, which she added is the only song on the album about acting.

‘But where the title really comes from for me is about this idea of embarrassment. Most people wouldn’t describe me as a particularly shameful or shy person. But I actually walk through my life feeling tremendously embarrassed most of the time – that I talked too loud at a party or said something stupid or, you know, whatever it is,’ she shared.

‘So that’s part of what it means. And the other part of what it means is that blush is simultaneously a revealing thing. Like, when you blush, you’re revealing something about yourself, something personal. And it’s also a mask, like if you put on blush or makeup. It’s a mask. It hides your face, your feelings,’ Hawke continued.