At 31, she was diagnosed with autism. Here's how it enriched her life
>> This Moment of Disruption is part of The Disruptors series
Paulette Penzvalto says she's living her dream, with the satisfaction of someone who once thought it was never possible.
Growing up the eldest of eight children, home-schooled, and grappling with severe learning difficulties, Penzvalto tried fitting in with her peers but found it a confusing challenge.
Despite a fierce intellect and being a high level visual reader, she struggled with reading comprehension and could not recall words.
On the other hand, Penzvalto was a musical prodigy who was singing at a conservatory level at age 14. She would go on to have a world-class career as a classical vocalist, despite never achieving her high school diploma.
Everything changed when she was accepted to the prestigious arts school Juilliard, having made her way from the equally reputable Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. In the process of getting certain accommodations for her learning difficulties, Penzvalto learned something surprising: she had high-functioning autism.
"The first response I had to the diagnosis was relief. And then the second was, 'Wow! What can I do with this information?'"
At 31, the penny had finally dropped, and Penzvalto would swiftly complete her high school diploma, go on to study computer science at Columbia University, and land a job at Google. There she leads programs that help people with autism thrive in the workplace, and provide support for autistic women working in the notoriously male-dominated Silicon Valley.
"It's a lot more pressure for [women] to assimilate. Men can get away with [it] — in Silicon Valley we term it the 'Brilliant Jerk syndrome,'" she says.
"It's fine for boys to be rambunctious. It's fine for them to be highly intellectual. Girls don't get away with that as well."
Far from being dispirited, Penzvalto says her later-in-life autism diagnosis was enriching.
"It gave me a platform and a cause to be passionate about. I think without that, certainly I would still be successful but I would probably always wonder what made me tick and why I seem to be a little different," she says.
"Accepting oneself is really the path to a more vibrant life."
Listen to Paulette Penzvalto's full story at the top of this web post.
This Moment of Disruption segment was produced by The Current's Ashley Mak.