Jake Posner has revealed the incredible difficulties he has had to overcome before being unveiled as a new ambassador for the British Dyslexia Association. As a child at school, he became a self-confessed 'class clown' as his way of trying to get attention from teachers and deflecting his frustration that he couldn't complete his work.
Jake was diagnosed with dyslexia - a common learning difficulty - at the age of eight and struggled to read and write, and understand numbers. But his condition also impacted his organisational skills. The Mirror reports how his maths teacher once said he was her worst-ever student and, at 16, he was kicked out of school with one GCSE, having no clue where to go next.
Just over a decade later, the 28-year-old, of Radlett, Hertfordshire, has founded his own sustainable fashion brand which embraces his condition and this Dyslexia Awareness Week (October 3-7) has been announced as the new ambassador for the British Dyslexia Association. Jake wants to show others how being labelled shouldn't mean you're destined for failure, as he felt, and argues neurodivergence awareness should be supported further in the UK.
"I was the class clown," Jake admits. "I found a lot of what I learned at school really pointless, I was like, 'Why am I learning this?' I'd much prefer to learn about the real world and I'd always ask my dad if I could go to work with him and earn money.
"My mum went to parents' evening one year and my maths teacher said to my mum, 'Jake's a great guy but he's the worst person I've ever taught at maths in my 30 years of teaching'. When a teacher says that it makes you think, 'What do I actually have to offer anyone and how can I move forward in my future?'
"Or I'd have worked hard on homework and a teacher says the spelling isn't great, the grammar isn't great, but you've got a good story - so that was always frustrating as well."
He remembers his GCSE results day well, and was forced to leave his school while his peers went on to Sixth Form and college. "I was left to my own devices and became that outcast," Jake recalls. "I remember walking up in my local high street knocking on doors for a job, just to do anything really, just to try and learn something and earn a bit of money."
He managed to secure an apprenticeship at an estate agent for a year and a half and looking back, is thankful for the skills he learnt in the world of work. While he was an "unorganised mess" as a student, Jake had always shown creativity and if something did inspire him, he would pursue it passionately.
There were no books in his locker, but Jake would collect empty Lucozade bottles and store them there before taking them home to recycle. He'd always shown an interest in the environment and in fashion - which led him to create his brand - NO ONE TRUE ANYTHING - which uses pioneering technology to create denim with 99 per cent less water and sells 100 per cent organic cotton jersey pieces.
He uses a manufacturer in Portugal, with a focus on quality and fair wages. And most importantly, it encompasses his condition - from its name, slogan, and debut collection (spelt deb-ut), the brand echos how Jake perceives things, reads and writes, with phrases broken down into hyphenated syllables.
The designer, who set up his company in 2021 with his own savings and credit cards, has chief financial and operational officers on board to help him with the numbers.
"I've always wanted to do something in a creative space," Jake said. "For the last 18 months in the business, I've felt confident with what I'm doing and I've never felt 100 per cent confident with what I'm doing before and passionate with what I'm doing.
"I want to prove people wrong. I hate being doubted and hate the labels that come with dyslexia. I wanted to prove to people that yeah, my teenage years weren't great, but it taught me a lot - resilience, how to network, and so much that I didn't learn at school."
Reflecting on the struggles he faced, he argues there needs to be a shake-up with the education system in England with a focus on practical lessons such as money and mortgages and in practical ways, such as teaching percentages out in an allotment picking vegetables.
"If I was taught that way, I think I would have benefited a lot more at school," he added. "If people don't have a degree or A levels, they get brushed to the side and have to go on their own which is what I've done."
With how far awareness of dyslexia has come over the years, he welcomes a shift in attitude from when he was a child, but feels the acceptance needs to be pushed further.
"I think when I was kid, no one sort of realised their organisational skills and all this kind of stuff related to dyslexia," he said. "For the future, I would love to be able to have a basis whereby I can help other people who have struggled in school or struggling as adults to help them find their feet and the journey that they want to go on and try and guide and help in the right direction because I know how hard it is."
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