Guest Writer 300

My life as a dyslexic & dyspraxic nail technician

By Guest Writer | 09 June 2021 | Feature, Health & wellbeing, Tech Talk

Jade Mullin Feature

Jade Mullin, Owner of Jade Mullin Academy and Educator for Glitterbels shares what it is like working as a dyslexic and dyspraxic nail technician…

After having a long passion for nails I started training in nails in 2019. I am now qualified in hard gel enhancements, acrylic enhancements, gel polish and the use of an E-file. I worked really hard and was able to get a full client base within a few months.

After being qualified for a year, I decided to take the plunge and train to be an educator. This is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as I love being able to teach someone a new career as it is such a gratifying feeling.

When I was around the age of eight, my parents started to notice that I was struggling a lot in school and the teachers were saying that I was lazy and not concentrating.

My mum started to notice that I really did struggle with letter formation, numbers and understanding things. She tried to get help from the school but during that time there was very limited help and they didn’t seem very interested so she decided to pay privately to have me tested.

While being tested, there were a number of tasks that I had to complete such as number formations, puzzles, picture recognition and many more things. The outcome of these tests determined I have dyslexia and dyspraxia which explained why I was struggling to learn the same way as everyone else. This really did explain a lot and it was just the beginning of a hard path ahead.

As a nail technician, I wouldn’t say I face any challenges but training to be a nail tech was slightly different. When you have training, it does tend to be ‘this is how you do it’, and if you can’t do it that way you can struggle so in some cases I found this quite hard.

I find each educator has their own way of teaching and working so in some cases I couldn’t necessarily work the same way or understand the process as everyone else. Through lots of practice and dedication, I found my own way of working to get the same results and this is when I decided I wanted to become an educator and help others who don’t necessarily learn in the same way others do as one shoe doesn’t fit all.

Educators do their best to try and adapt learning to everyone but in some cases it is really hard. With dyslexia and dyspraxia, every individual is different and suffers with it differently.

Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any additional support but as an individual that didn’t bother me as it made me more determined to prove that I can do this.

However, I do know a lot of people who would like to be a nail technician but are put off because they feel they can’t do it, especially when it comes to the theory side of the work. My aim is to try and help others who may feel like I did and show them that they can do it. I did it so you can do it.

In all honesty, I was always ashamed to admit that I had dyslexia and dyspraxia so in my past jobs I’ve never let the employer know. In school, I didn’t let friends know and it’s only since I have achieved what I have achieved in the nail industry that I am happy to speak about it because I want others to not be ashamed like I was as it is not a disability, it is a power.

My advice to other budding nail technicians suffering with dyslexia and dyspraxia would be to not be ashamed. It just means we have to work a little bit harder to achieve but when we achieve, boy do we achieve!

My aim in the industry is to help people understand learning difficulties and that not everybody learns the same. It needs to be recognised that just one way of working doesn’t work and you should always keep training and investing in yourself.

Follow Jade on Instagram here and check out her academy here