Where shall we start?
I was recently introduced to the story of Amelia Earhart and her disappearance. A member of my book club recommended the book, “One More Good Flight” by Ric Gillespie. As it turns out, my friend’s late husband had been a part of the search teams looking for evidence of what happened to Amelia Earhart on a small island in the Pacific Ocean. It is not a biography, it is a detailed account of the evidence collected to show that she lived for a couple of months on an island south of her destination, and she and her navigator were never found due to a pile of errors and misfortune.
While reading this book, I kept saying to myself, “This sounds like something a person with ADHD would do, or that behavior and trait are very autistic.” Finally, that voice got too loud in my head, and I went and researched her background and childhood. She outlined to me, a poster child for a woman with ADHD, born to a woman who was a different thinker. She was unconventional on all levels and didn’t waver from it at any time.
Why I think it matters to take the time to point this out is because too often people and parents think that success is a linear and predetermined thing, and it is for some people, but for most different thinkers, it’s not. Because of that winding and curvy line to success, people judge themselves as less than or not good enough. Parents fear that their children will not grow up to find a place in the world or feel successful. I did this to highlight a once living example of what it looks like in the real world to be successful. It is amazing, scary, challenging, and never a straight line.
While her situation ends with her dying just as she is turning 40, there were many places in her life that, if someone had known more about how her brain operated, they could have assisted her to have support with the important details, like learning Morse code.
Here is what I noticed when I looked over the timeline of her life.
She had many jobs, and from the second she flew, they were all focused on making money to fly more.
She was a daredevil and not afraid to push the boundaries.
She was empathetic and believed she deserved to be treated fairly and with respect.
She never graduated from any of the colleges she attended.
She never sat still for very long.
She did more things in forty years than most people do in a lifetime.
She dressed in her own style, which was unconventional.
She had a contract in her marriage that says she needed freedom, too.
She was smart and taught herself many things.
She didn’t listen to advice from others often.
She was creative, resourceful, and relentless.
This is just a short list of the many things I noticed about her that I believe demonstrate that she was a different thinker.
After you look over my evidence, I would love to know what you think.
Could she have been a different thinker?
Did she maybe have ADHD?
Could she have been autistic in today’s standards?
Does any of that matter?
If so, why?
The coach in me would have enjoyed the chance to coach her and help her notice her blind spots before they were fatal.
I am glad to have explored this further. I found myself relating to her life at many points and feeling less alone in my own unconventional journey to success.
She also inspired me to write out my goals again and read them out loud to my husband, to affirm that we all have big dreams and big goals to keep aiming for.
I look forward to your thoughts,
JoyGenea Schumer
Unconventional Leadership Coach specializing in Different Thinkers (AKA Neurodiversity, ADHD, dyslexia, and autism)
Timeline Compiled by JoyGenea Schumer – CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE PDF
Amelia Mary Earhart
Nickname Meeley
Born July 24, 1897, Atchison, Kansas, U.S.
daughter of Samuel “Edwin” Stanton Earhart (1867–1930)
Amelia “Amy” Earhart (née Otis; 1869–1962).
Has a younger sister Grace
“Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be “nice little girls”.[14] The children’s maternal grandmother disapproved of the bloomers they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood’s girls wore dresses.” Per Wikipedia
1907 (10 years old) The family moves to Iowa
During this period, the Earhart girls received homeschooling from their mother and a governess.
1909 (12 years old) She goes to a public school
1914 (17 years old) Father retires from his job due to his alcoholism
1915 (18 years old) Moves to Minneapolis, father loses job, Mom and girls move to Chicago
1916 (19 years old) Graduated from High School
Throughout her childhood, she continued to aspire to a future career; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in male-dominated careers, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.
1916 (19 years old) She began junior college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania, but did not complete her program.
1917–1918 (20–21 years old) works as a Nurse’s Aide. Worked with the Voluntary Aid Detachment and heard stories from military pilots
At Christmas, while visiting her sister in Toronto, Canada, she worked at Spadina Military Hospital, Toronto, Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from World War I, after receiving training as a nurse’s aide from the Red Cross.
1918 (21 years old) Gets the Spanish flu, and it takes a year to recover. She stays with her sister in Massachusetts. Earhart passed the time reading poetry, learning to play the banjo, and studying mechanics. She was plagued by Chronic sinusitis from that point on and had many surgeries, not all of which were successful.
1919 (22 years old), Earhart prepared to enter Smith College, where her sister was a student, but she changed her mind and enrolled in a course in medical studies and other programs at Columbia University. Earhart quit her studies a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.
In the early 1920s, (23 years old) Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair in Toronto. She so enjoyed it that it led her to all the air circuses in the vicinity.
1920 December 28, (23 years old) Earhart and her father attended an “aerial meet in Long Beach, California. She asked her father to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons.
Earhart was booked for a passenger flight the following day at Emory Rogers Field. A 10-minute flight with Frank Hawks, cost $10 (equivalent to $160 in 2024). The ride with Hawkes changed Earhart’s life; she said: “By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90 m] off the ground … I knew I had to fly.”
1921 January 3, (24 years old) She hires Neta Snook as her flying instructor.
1921 (24 years old) Worked various jobs to save money for flying lessons. Photographer, Truck Driver, Stenographer
mid 1921 (24 years old) Six months later, in and against her flight instructor Snook’s advice, Earhart purchased a secondhand, chromium yellow Kinner Airster biplane, she named “The Canary.”
1922 October 22, (25 years old) Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), setting a world record for female pilots.
1923 May 16, (26 years old), she became the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot’s license.
in early 1924, (27 years old), she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. She tried several ventures, including setting up a photography company.
1924 (27 years old), parents divorced
She returned to Columbia University for several months but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs.
1925 (28 years old) Teacher
Found employment as a teacher after she was forced to abandon her studies at Columbia University.
1925 (28 years old) Social Worker, she served as a social worker at a settlement house in Boston. Denison House, Boston, Massachusetts
1927 (30 years old), she flew out of Denison Airport in Quincy and had their first official flight, and is a member of the American Aeronautical Society’s Boston chapter, and at some point was elected its vice president
1928 (31 years old) Amelia becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Recruited by George Putnam for American heiress Amy Phipps Guest, who wanted to do this herself, but had no flying skills, and her family talked her out of it. Amy resolved to sponsor the flight. In April 1928, George Putnam, who published Charles Lindbergh’s best-selling autobiography “WE”. With the help of an associate, he takes on the task of finding the right sort of girl to fly the plane. They made some calls, were directed to Denison House, and asked for Amelia. Once they met her, they knew she was what they were looking for. Amelia had some rules about her participation that she made sure were in writing and part of the contract before she took on this venture.
“She made it clear that the role of a mere passenger held no appeal to her—she wanted the opportunity to take her turn at the controls. Although she lacked experience with multi-engine aircraft and non-visual instrument flying, it was agreed that, weather permitting, she would be allowed to pilot the aircraft for a portion of the journey. It was written into her flight contract that Earhart would hold the title of commander aboard Friendship. She was granted final authority over all matters of policy, procedure, personnel, and any other issues that might arise during the mission, at least until their arrival in London. Both Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon would serve as her subordinates during the flight.” Wikipedia
Due to poor visibility, she never did actually get to fly the plane. She did other things, but was not trained in instrument-only flying at that time.
1928 (31 years old), Earhart authored a book about the flight titled 20 Hrs. 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship, with the title referencing the duration of the transatlantic journey. However, according to the flight log that Earhart herself maintained, the actual flight time was 20 hours and 49 minutes.
1928 November (31 years old), Amelia calls off her engagement to chemical engineer Samual Chapman from Boston.
1928-1931 Earhart is participating in the aeronautical shows she used to travel around and watch. Pushing the boundaries and the limits of her planes. Setting small records for female pilots. She is also engaged in an intense lecture tour and endorsing products. She is now becoming a celebrity to the public. She used that new status to promote women’s fashion. The “active living” lines were an expression of Amelia’s new image.
“Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful, but feminine “A.E.”, the familiar name she used with family and friends.” Wikipedia
She also took on a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan. She helped set up the first regional shuttle between New York and Washington, D.C.. She was appointed VP of National Airways. All of this focused on greater acceptance of aviation, with an emphasis on the role of women entering the field. She interceded to assist Isabel Ebel (who assisted her with one of her record-breaking flights) to gain acceptance as the first woman student of aeronautical engineering at NYU. Ebel later graduated from MIT in 1932.
During this time, she also became involved with Ninety-Nines (named after the number of charter members), an organization for female pilots advancing the cause of women in aviation and providing moral support.
All this helps to fund her aviation dreams and goals for herself and other women.
1929 November (32 years old), Earhart set a Women’s Speed Record.
1930 (33 years old), She set three more records. She also became an official of the National Aeronautic Association, where she promoted the establishment of separate women’s records and was instrumental in persuading the FAI to accept a similar international standard.
1931 February (33 years old) After much encouragement by George Putnam he and Amelia are married, with a caveat in writing that “I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly … I may have to keep some place where I can go to be by myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.”
She also became stepmom to David and George Jr. sons from George’s first marriage, which ended in 1929.
1932 May 20, (34 years old) Became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight.
She also receives the Congressional Distinguished Flying Cross (the first and only such medal awarded to a civilian).
1935 January 11, (37 years old) First aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, HI to Oakland, CA.
1935 May 8, (37 years old) First nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. Shortly after this, her house in New York burned down, and they moved to Toluca Lake, CA. George took a job with Paramount Pictures as head of their editorial board.
1935 June 3, Visiting Faculty Member at Purdue University (37 years old)
She served as an advisor in aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students. This prompted a fifty-percent increase in the enrollment of freshman women. And that was before she had even set foot on campus.
1935 September, (38 years old) Earhart and Paul Mantz establish a business partnership, the Earhart-Mantz Flying School. Paul operated it through his aviation company, United Air Services.
1937 June 1, (39 years old) Earhart and Fred Noonan, the navigator, started to fly around the world. She was aiming to be the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe.
1937 July 2, (39 years old) The plane does not arrive on Howland Island. What happened at that point is not a hundred percent clear. All data shows that they landed on an island south of the destination, and due to bad radio equipment and neither person learning Morse code nor having a key on board, they were never actually found. They transmitted communications for days and were never located.
What is clear is that she and Noonan were never seen or heard from again once the transmissions stopped.
Video transcription:
So this week’s question I’m posing to the world in general: Is it possible that Amelia Earhart is an undocumented different thinker? Could she have possibly been neurodiverse?
I just got done, I had a great gift. So this month’s book that we read for my book club was One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy by Rick Leslie. Really interesting book. If you really like aeronautical and planes, and aeronautics and planes and the mechanics of them, highly detailed book, great. First introduction I had to Amelia Earhart.
So I’m reading this book and I’m going along and I’m like, you know, this sounds like a neurotypical person. Like, boy, those are traits of a person with ADHD. I’m like, those are classic female ADHD types of things. And so I made it probably under halfway through, I probably made it through a quarter of the book, and I went, I have to do some research on this person. Like I’m really, really curious about her childhood, about kind of the telltale signs of a different thinker.
Which are jobs, number of jobs that they’ve had, the variety of jobs that they’ve had. Strong interest in one particular thing, bit of a, you know, note to a trait of that. So I did, I started, I read up—I’ll be honest, a lot of Wikipedia. I also read a variety of other things along with the book, and it was just so clear to me. I’m like, oh, I really think and believe that this is a very undocumented person who in today’s world would probably be given an ADHD diagnosis.
And it was, it was fun. So I pieced together a timeline that you will have to go to my article to see, step by step how that maps out. I think one of the first signs to me that said, oh, this is definitely somebody probably in our category, is the fact that her mom allowed her daughters, at the turn of the century, in the early 1900s, to actually not wear dresses, to wear pants. They lived in Kansas. She stood out probably, but she didn’t stand out that much in school because her mom kept her home, and she was actually homeschooled most of her, a big chunk of her childhood, actually until they moved to Chicago.
So she already, it’s very clear, was being brought up unconventionally. Her mom came from some money, and so that allowed them some additional freedoms. Growing up there, it turns out her father had an alcoholism problem. So, potential for him to be neurodiverse seems to me to maybe be a possibility in there. Very smart individual, but bounced around job to job and struggled financially because of his alcoholism. That shows up quite a bit.
So they wind up moving, Kansas, Chicago. She actually graduates from high school in Chicago. There’s a little stint where they’re in Minneapolis. They live in Iowa for a little while. When she’s 10 years old, they moved to Iowa—let me be clear. The Minneapolis job is when she’s about 18, and then she winds up, for her last year of high school, moving to Chicago with her mom and graduating there.
So she’s already moved around a lot. She’s been homeschooled, then she’s been public school. Not huge signs, but definitely getting the picture of a person that could maybe be a different thinker. And then you start to look at how many colleges she starts to attend and doesn’t even complete two or three months, and moves on. That’s a pretty classic sign of ADHD.
She follows her sister a lot as far as staying with her for a while, so there’s no exact address or location. She’s either living with her parents, it seems, or she’s kind of living with her sister. So again, that could also be classified as a neurodiverse ADHD type of trait. It’s very clear that the chunk of time between graduation and going to college is a struggle for her. She is not sure where she belongs. She’s not sure what she should be doing. She’s not sure what direction to even go.
As I read up on her, she again tries another couple of colleges. And then in 1920, if you can imagine that, her father attends an aerial meet in Long Beach, California. She shows an interest in wanting to ride in an airplane. He speaks to one of the pilots at this event, they said, “Sure, swing by our hangar later on the next day.” And she does. Sure enough, she gets her first flight with that person—10 minutes, and she knows. She said once she hits a certain limit, she knows this is what she wants to do forever.
Like this is what she wants to be doing, flying. And so literally all of a sudden, she has immense focus because she knows exactly what she wants to do. She goes out and then proceeds to take pretty much any job she can, so that she can raise the money to pay to go to flight school, to take tutelage under a female pilot, which is an incredible find in and of itself. So she takes flight lessons from Neta Snook—love the last name, Snook.
And again, in these years, lots of wide variety of jobs, always a high focus on being able to fly and doing those types of things. That is how she starts. She buys her own plane against the suggestion of any of the people around her—again, bit of a clue. And then she proceeds. She wants to break records. She’s been collecting newspaper articles most of her life about women who were doing unconventional things and setting new limits, setting new records. And so that becomes her focus.
She proceeds to do that, and that’s her life laid out over the next few years until she obviously disappears/dies. As I read through it, I’ve laid out the data that I was able to find to put together things. It’s quite a story of an unconventional thinker. But it definitely lays out to me and appears to be, she was probably a different thinker also, in the amount of daredevil and life-risking that she was comfortable doing. On top of that, just her extreme hyperfocus on a few particular things.
And her lack of detail. In reading this book and wrapping up, one of the biggest hindrances to her being found: she communicates for days after she’s on this island just south of where she was trying to go. She communicates for days, and there’s so many communication breakdowns. She does not know Morse code. Many people had suggested, tried to help her, but she never learns Morse code. There is no key on the plane, and so she and the navigator are not able to communicate in Morse code.
That’s probably the main reason they were never found—because they were not able to receive communications, and what they were able to receive was Morse code, and they could not interpret it. That lack of knowing a detail that is immensely important in what she was doing also to me was a hint and a nod to the fact, yeah, this could be a person who was probably a different thinker and part of our neurodiverse environment.
So I would love to hear your opinions. If you’ve enjoyed this, make sure you stay attached—follow, subscribe, push the buttons so you can hear more of these types of things. I’m JoyGenea, International Neurodiversity Coach, always asking the question: what more is there to know about us, our neurodiversity, how we blend in, how we grow, and how we can be incredibly successful?
Because I consider Amelia Earhart an incredible success. She inspired thousands and millions of people long after her passing and her disappearance. She established many things for a lot of women, and that’s incredible. I’m grateful to her as an unconventional, different thinker. I’ve benefited from some of the groundwork that she laid.
I would love to hear your stories and your input. Thanks, and have an awesome day. Bye.