What happens when you’re diagnosed with ADHD as a little girl in 1995, at a time when hardly anyone believed girls could have it? For Cristina Gilbert, it meant growing up under the weight of risk statistics, labels, and doubt but refusing to let them define her.
In this episode, Cristina takes us through her extraordinary journey:
Early diagnosis at 8 years old and what it meant to grow up neurodivergent in the 90s.
The impact of hearing “risk statistics” as a child and how that shaped her confidence.
How swimming pools and high-pressure kitchens became unexpected lifelines, teaching her structure, focus, and confidence.
Her reinvention from dropping out of college and battling the chaos of freedom, to finding new purpose in the kitchens, then leaping to the Netherlands to study agriculture.
How a farming degree turned into a marketing agency, and eventually led her to EdTech with Cirrus Assessment, where she now champions fairness in exams and inclusion in education.
Cristina shares openly about masking, mirroring, and struggling to fit in but also about how those same survival skills turned into strengths. She reflects on how parents and educators can better support neurodiverse children by matching environments to their brains, rather than trying to force them into traditional moulds.
For anyone who’s ever felt “different,” this episode is proof that different isn’t broken — it’s powerful.
👉 Connect with Cristina on LinkedIn: Cristina Gilbert
🎧 Listen now to hear Cristina’s full story of grit, reinvention, and why “Thick No More” means shedding shame and embracing difference.