Known as the “Goddess of Pop,” Cher is something of a legend in the music industry, with a career spanning over six decades. Despite her status as an acclaimed musician and actress, she actually had a difficult start, struggling in school because of her undiagnosed dyslexia. Nowadays, though, she takes pride in her dyslexia and uses her platform to raise awareness for kids like her.
Cher was born on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California. She went to Montclair College Preparatory School, a school for students that were mostly from affluent families. While she earned high grades, it was quite a challenge for her, due in large part to the fact that she had dyslexia. “I couldn’t read quickly enough to get all my homework done and for me, math was like trying to understand Sanskrit,” she wrote in her autobiography, The First Time. In fact, she admits that she still struggles with math and reading. When she was younger, she didn’t know that she had dyslexia. She only found out when her son, Chaz Bono, was diagnosed with dyslexia. Since it’s often hereditary, the doctors asked her a few questions and ended up diagnosing her with dyslexia as well. According to her, “It was like a big, Ohhh…Now I understood everything, why I had so much trouble with school. It all fit together.”
Nowadays, in addition to her still-ongoing musical career, Cher has shifted her focus to advocacy and philanthropy. She’s raised awareness about dyslexia, poverty, animal rights, covid-19, elder rights, and most notably, she’s a major proponent of LGBTQ+ rights. Cher is something of a gay icon, even earning the GLAAD Vanguard Award for having "made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for lesbians and gay men''. She’s also the parent of a trans child and is a sort of role model for other parents of trans children.
Cher celebrates the differences in others and in her own differences too. When asked if she would change the fact that she had dyslexia if she could, Cher replied: “No! It caused pain, but it’s me!”