Penn Holderness on ADHD, Creativity, and Why Your 'Weird' Brain is Actually Awesome

In this episode of The Growing Readers Podcast, host Bianca Schulze welcomes Penn Holderness—content creator, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author—to discuss his picture book, All You Can Be With ADHD (co-authored with Kim Holderness). Penn shares his journey from being diagnosed with ADHD in college after chewing on a fly swatter at his grandmother's funeral to creating a joyful, empowering book that invites kids to join the ADHD Club rather than just cope with a diagnosis.

What started as an adult book became a children's resource after parents at book signings asked for something their kids could understand. Penn opens up about why he felt like "no one in history was as weird as I was," how his deeply feeling nature and emotional regulation delays shaped his childhood, and why ADHD is a delay—not a deficit. With humor and honesty, he reveals how sharks, ninjas, and a fiddle-playing snake came to represent the creative, wild world of ADHD brains, and why understanding executive function development can change everything for kids and parents alike.

Read the transcript on The Children's Book Review (coming soon).

Highlights:

• The Fly Swatter Moment: Penn's unexpected ADHD diagnosis story
• From Academic Probation to Author: How college struggles led to understanding
• The ADHD Club Concept: Why Penn chose a playful clubhouse over clinical terminology
• Executive Function is Delayed: Understanding brain development in ADHD kids
• Deeply Feeling Kids: Penn's emotional regulation journey and what he wishes he'd known
• From Social Media to Books: How kids at signings inspired the picture book
• Teacher Resources: The curriculum Penn and Kim created for classroom discussions
• It's Not Just Medical: Why modern ADHD understanding focuses on brain differences, not just deficits

Notable Quotes:"It is a delay... our executive functioning part of our brain is underdeveloped. And that goes on through most of childhood and adolescence, and it will catch up in some ways during adulthood." —Penn Holderness

"I always thought of ADHD as a club, as a group of people... people who weren't sure why they were drawn to each other, but were able to kind of live creatively." —Penn Holderness

Books Mentioned:

• All You Can Be With ADHD by Penn Holderness and Kim Holderness: Amazon or Bookshop.org
• ADHD Is Awesome by Penn Holderness and Kim Holderness: Amazon or Bookshop.org

The Educator Guide for this book can be found at the bottom of the publisher's book page: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/penn-holderness/all-you-can-be-with-adhd/9780316597678/

About Penn Holderness:Penn Holderness is a content creator, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author known for his viral videos with his wife Kim. Together they've built a community around honest conversations about parenting, marriage, and mental health. After being diagnosed with ADHD in college, Penn has become an advocate for understanding and celebrating neurodivergent brains. He and Kim are the authors of ADHD Is Awesome and All You Can Be With ADHD.

Credits:Host: Bianca SchulzeGuest: Penn Holderness

Audio Editor: Kelly RinkProducer: Bianca Schulze