ADHD Awareness Month X Black History Month 2025

NFWI in Conversation with ADHD Babes, a support group for Black women and Black non-binary people of African-Caribbean descent with ADHD.

This October, as ADHD Awareness Month coincides with Black History Month, we’re taking the opportunity to explore the powerful intersection between race, gender, and neurodivergence. The National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) is proud to spotlight ADHD Babes, an award-winning community organisation creating safe, affirming spaces for Black women and Black non-binary people of African-Caribbean descent living with ADHD.

Could you start by telling us about ADHD Babes, how the organisation began, and what inspired its creation?

ADHD Babes is an award winning, international community group for Black Women and Non-Binary people with ADHD. We create safer spaces for us to flourish and live our lives to their greatest potential. We are a 100% peer-led organisation with over 300 registered members and over 1400 strong wider community.

I was inspired to start ADHD Babes after being late diagnosed in my early 20s and feeling a deep sense of loneliness and loss. It felt like a period of mourning and confusion with no points of reference. I attempted to visit support groups with my partner at the time but always felt like the odd one out and that the spaces were not made with me in mind. My partner at the time encouraged me to make my own space, and this led to a Facebook group that organically migrated to a Whatsapp group with 2 other Black Women. The space continued to grow with babes from around the UK joining for a sense of community. We had impromptu meet ups over Zoom during the lockdown initiated by one of the original members of the group which developed into the idea for an online support group. During the summer, I completed a Masters in Cultural and Global Perspectives to Mental health care at Queen Mary's and felt equipped and inspired to invest in community centered care through a psychological lense. Feeling fired up and inspired, I met with the two Women who joined me in the Whatsapp group initially and we agreed to go public, they became the co-founders of ADHD Babes and we have grown from strength to strength for the last 5 years.

How does ADHD uniquely show up in the lives of Black women and non-binary people compared to the broader ADHD community?

The layered triple bond of facing challenges due to race, gender and disability is unique to Black Women and Non-binary people with ADHD. This looks like cultural pressures to not 'wash your dirty laundry outside', or the lack of conversation around disability within many Black families. It also looks like strained relationships with health services due to poorer health outcomes, medical racism and lack of representations in healthcare workforces. It looks like being diagnosed with anxiety, depression and personality disorders because your ADHD symptoms are seen through the lense of your gender, or seen as personality traits. So it looks like being called aggressive, disagreeable or angry. It looks like your ADHD symptoms being missed as personality traits because you were the little girl in school who couldn't concentrate, and not the stereotypically little boy who couldn't sit still. The unique struggles with our intersection are layered and continuous and compound on one another in a way that hard to word.

Many people still hold stereotypes about what ADHD “looks like.” How does a lack of representation impact people in your community?

It looks like us being missed and being late diagnosed. The majority of our members were diagnosed between their 20s to 50s, and are forced to reckon with the life they could have lived if the world had seen their struggles as deserving of care. The lost jobs, the broken friendships, the lives we imagined and deserved but couldn't quite actualise. For some, it leaves deep wounds of depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and attempts. The percentage of Women who attempt to take their life is disproportionately higher for ADHDer's. The impact literally costs us our lives.

What are the partnerships, resources, or events created by ADHD Babes that you’re most proud of?

Creating an Outreach Programme that is based in psychological research, community feedback and best practise for managing ADHD is a huge resource I feel very proud of. Being able to create the care I wish I got after being diagnosed feels like a blessing. This includes some amazing partnerships with organisations like Psychiatry UK, Kew Gardens and the National Theatre. Being able to support babes in practical ways such as understanding the clinical diagnosis process, to then being able to improve access to green and theatre spaces for babes who often felt these rooms were not for them. The holistic approach to community care brings me joy in ways that fill my spirit.

How can organisations like the Women’s Institute and its members become better allies in advocating for neurodivergent inclusion?

Speak our names, stories and voices when we are not in the room. Beyond that, ask why we are not. Creating a more equitable world is not something that happens overnight, but it begins with every shift towards a more compassionate society. It sits in the ability to question and be uncomfortable with not knowing. Is your D&I policy a living document? Or is it something you have to do to as a tick box exercise? What practical steps can you take with minortised communities to co-produce in meaningful ways. Go together, stay a lifetime learner and never underestimate the impact of being ally out loud.