At school, Sophie-Maude Turner used to hide in the bathroom from bullies who made her life hell, mocking her for being different. As a young girl, suffering with multiple disorders on the autistic spectrum, including ASD, OCD, Tourette’s, Anxiety, and ADHD, Sophie found school unbearable. Other kids would trigger her tics with key words they knew set her off, which increased her anxiety and exacerbated her obsessive compulsive disorder. Most days would end with her returning home in tears.
The lack of understanding and empathy from children, as well as teachers, resulted in Sophie’s parents choosing to home-school her from the age of 10. Instead of this limiting her social skills and confidence in any way, the right environment, along with the understanding and support she needed, enabled Sophie to grow into a confident, intelligent, and articulate young person who, at 19, is now an immensely talented singer, songwriter, and performer.
Sophie calls herself quirky and is proud to say she lives life on the Autistic Spectrum. It makes her who she is creatively. Singing from an early age, it was performing in musical theatre that made her realise that bringing joy to others was what she loved. Sophie released her first single on Spotify in 2020 and now has a number of songs including two that she has featured for, ‘Diamonds’ for Deadbeat, and ‘A Perfect Storm’ for Blindspott. In June 2022, her song ‘Take Me Away’ reached No.1 in the NZ Hot 40 Singles Charts.
In an interview that is both moving and funny, Sophie openly shares her story, from providing insight into the disorders she’s been diagnosed with, how they manifest and how she is now able to gain some control over them, through to her approach to creative song writing and performing on stage in front of thousands of people. Sophie even tries to teach Steve song writing and sets him a challenge to write his own!
This episode has a powerful story with lessons about love, forgiveness, understanding, and how, with the right support and attitude, you can turn your ‘quirkiness’ into a superpower!
Sophie is most certainly living a life that’s a story worth re-telling, and one suspects that there will be so many more exciting chapters to come.
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