Every hero has an origin story. Mine began at age seven, when I was diagnosed with Dyslexia.
No explosions, no flashy power — just a quiet shift in how adults saw me. I didn’t know at the time that this moment marked the awakening of a quirk. This quirk would punctuate my creativity. It became part of my identity. Eventually, it connected me to My Hero Academia.
2025 brought an end to eight incredible seasons of Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia).
The story of Midoryia Izuku, or Deku as many know him by, is one I relate to.
In my own way, there was a wish to be greater and recognized for what made me unique. When I found myself sat across from an old man with receding hair, a Clinical Psychologist. As he scrutinized every inch of what made me, me.
We ran through tests of all kinds:
- IQ tests
- Reaching tests
- Phonological processing tests
Unlike MHA, what I faced was dramatically different. My story had a streak of yellow highlighter running through it. I was a black British kid living in the small coastal town of Sussex, England.
I’ll never forget that moment in episode one. Dr. Tsubasa (Quirk Specialist) tells Mrs Midoryia and Izuku, “You should probably give it up.” The specialist informed my parents differently than the Midoryia’s experience. He said, “I was bright but would struggle to amount to anything.” These were words that came to define the next thirty-one years of my life.
This appointment confirmed something I’d known for most of my childhood… Dyslexia. Like Izuku, I spent many school years or summer holidays obsessing. I wanted to become the greatest artist, runner, and sketcher.
Being bullied in School was part of the daily routine, and typically they would end in one of two ways. Either sat outside the Headmasters office, or being told to sit by myself in the Classroom.
This is also something Izuku experienced. A childhood “friend” named Bakugo was his biggest arch nemesis before All For One.
The Real Villain
It’s so easy to point fingers at someone while experience struggles. My version of All For One, was negative words and failed education systems. While I did experience my fair share of rejection.
The culprit was the misguided underbelly of society.
Stigma’s have a way of limiting people, when we let them. I fell through the cracks. The appropriate support wasn’t available to me. I just didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t know how to make sense of it.
My first diagnosis failed to account for key aspects of my abilities.
Characters Who Show My AuDHD Quirk
There’s no mystery here! Deku’s story packs a wallop! So, naturally he’d be my top pick. Why? Well, if it wasn’t obvious, our origins stories overlap—Surprisingly. While I have both parents and siblings in my life. The experience Midoryia encountered from a nursery age, pre-school and then UA High-school I can relate.
- Social awkwardness
- Lack of self-confidence
- Extremely emotional (sometimes hiding it, others not)
- Vivid imagination
- Obsessive passions
I could go on, but there is one more character to share with you.
Family is complicated and yet really important to me, this is where Shoto Todoroki and my self overlap.
I can’t shoot fire and ice from my hands. I also can’t hot bake a fusion of ice and fire in the cavity of my chest. Shoto comes from a big family full of different characters and complex histories.
He lives in two worlds, one spiced by lineage and shame and the other self recognition. For years, he repressed part of his identity in not wanting to be the mistakes of Endeavor, Shoto’s father.
- Social struggles: Todoroki often finds it hard to connect with others.
- Unique strengths: His dual quirk mirrors both talents and challenges.
- Identity conflict: He wrestles with self‑acceptance against outside expectations.
While this isn’t entirely alien to a-typical thought process. It is a struggle for Neurodivergent minds. In High School, social interactions were the bane of my existence. Within me, I had the wish to connect with others and yet also, wanted to be alone.
In season two, episode 23, the U.A. Sports Festival took place, an event that replaced MHA’s version of the Olympics.
During this event, Pro Hero’s watch students showcase their abilities with a chance for scouting soon.
In one match, Todoroki faces off against Midoryia. For the first time, Todoroki confronts himself. He uses his fire abilities passed down from Endeavour.
This moment, through Midoryia’s conversation and prompting—posed the question, “Isn’t that your power?”
It was an identity question, one rocking Shoto to the core of himself.
One of MHA’s top moments, which I personally related to. He was faced with deciding whether to embrace all of himself, or keep living life at 50%.
Instead of living that creative life, I spent twenty-eight living in fear of shame. Shame of difference in skin colour, needing extra time, thinking differently.
Creative Empowerment & Takeaways
The author of My Hero Academia, Kohei Hoikoshi is a genius writer. He took something societally alien and made it normal by flipping the script on its head.
“What if we lived in a world where 80% of society had quirks?” — Effectively normalizing differences, so much so society gets excited about them.
Through faith, self-understanding and honing my creative craft—allowed me to embrace my AuDHD quirks of Dyslexia, ADHD, and Autism.
These God-given gifts are part of my unique identity and allow me to do great things. Sometimes they are inherited, like Toshinori (All Might), and Midoryia, and sometimes we are born with them.
I can do the impossible, and do can you.
Sure! Some part of my story included fear, or shame, but there has also been hope, healing, joy and creativity too!
I learned that:
- You’re never too old to learn.
- Self-comparison cripples progress.
- Taking time to growth is good for you.
- There are no limits on what I can create
- And if I believe it? The impossible is achievable.
The story of My Hero Academia is one everyone can relate to. But most especially for Neurodivergent individuals.
If you feel like you don’t fit in? That is perfectly fine! You don’t need to fit in, to be accepted for who you are.
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“No matter what you are facing at this moment in time, you can do all things! Stay safe, and God speed!”