The three-time Academy Award nominee, Tom Cruise, hasn’t always been like this. As a young boy, he struggled with his family and a learning disorder. At the age of seven years old, he got diagnosed with dyslexia, which is a learning disorder that makes reading difficult. This is because it makes relating speech sounds to letters and words extremely hard. However, to be the actor and producer he is today, he had to overcome his disease. He’s been on the rise since ‘Interview With The Vampire’, ‘Top Gun,’ and all the way to ‘Mission Impossible.’

This isn’t the first time this happened in Hollywood. There are many successful celebrities who made it despite being diagnosed with dyslexia.

6Tom Cruise Was Diagnosed With Dyslexia At The Age Of Seven

Tom Cruise struggled at school and he was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was seven years old. This has affected his learning and even his acting career. Reading scripts wasn’t that easy for him, and he had to find a way to conquer his disorder. “I was a functional illiterate. I loved learning, I wanted to learn, but I knew I had failed in the system,” Cruise told People.

 “I’d try to concentrate on what I was reading. Then I’d get to the end of the page and have very little memory of anything I’d read.” However, he worked on learning visually, using a method that was developed by the Scientologist, L. Ron Hubbard. He would create mental imagery to remember his lines and stay in character as an actor.

5Orlando Bloom Was Diagnosed With Dyslexia When He Was Seven Years Old

Bloom is actually grateful for dyslexia. He said that dyslexia helped him learn everything forward, backward, and inside out, which made him prepared for anything. While he suffered at a young age, he didn’t let it come in the way of his acting career.

Bloom has said about dyslexia, “It makes you feel stupid; you just don’t feel smart. Somewhere in me, I knew that I was smart, I knew I wasn’t thick, but I was just really struggling with letters to sounds spelling, and writing, it was holding me back.” However, he pushed himself extra hard and took extra classes to learn. Bloom also learned to be confident enough to perform as an actor.

4Keira Knightley Was Diagnosed With Dyslexia At The Age Of Six

Knightley battled from a young age with reading and writing and was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six. However, having had an acting agent since the age of three, she had to overcome her disorder to pursue her dream of being an actress.

 Her family was very supportive of her and encouraged her to be the actress she wanted to be, especially her mom. Her mother told her, “If Emma Thompson couldn’t read, she’d make sure she’d get over it, so you have to start reading because that’s what Emma Thompson would do.” That was a good enough push to encourage her to work extra hard and overcome dyslexia.

3Jennifer Aniston Was Diagnosed With Dyslexia In Her Late 20s

Jennifer Aniston struggled in her youth and didn’t know why. “I thought I wasn’t smart. I just couldn’t retain anything,” She said. She couldn’t read, and her education was affected to the point where her confidence was shaken. Getting diagnosed with dyslexia in her early 20s was by accident.

 Jennifer Aniston went in for an eye exam and while she was reading, her doctor noticed that her eyes jump back and forth across the line. Knowing that she has dyslexia was a relief, and it explained all her childhood trauma. While she doesn’t read much to this day, she has found her own way to deal with dyslexia and be an award-winning actress.

2Robin Williams Was Diagnosed With Dyslexia At A Very Young Age

Williams has always been very open about being dyslexic. He was diagnosed at a very young age and was bullied and mocked for his inability to read. Despite being dyslexic, he graduated from high school and went to Julliard. However, he quit Julliard because he was good and confident enough to go on his own. Williams was absolutely right as he went on to be one of the best actors of our time.

1Keanu Reeves Got Diagnosed With Dyslexia Early On As A Child

Getting diagnosed at an early age was hard for Reeves. Just like most dyslexic people, he didn’t think he is a good student, and he dropped out of high school. Keanu Reeves has said before, “I did a lot of pretending as a child. It was my way of coping with the fact that I didn’t really feel like I fit in.” That was basically practicing for his future acting career, in which he will massively succeed.