Known for their viral YouTube videos like “Every Mom at Target” and “Welcome to Maycember” — not to mention dozens of videos that helped us survive the COVID-19 pandemic — the Holderness Family has garnered over 2 billion views and over 8 million followers across their social media platforms. Online content creators Penn and Kim Holderness have been married for 18 years and are also best-selling authors, award-winning podcast hosts, and winners on Season 33 of “The Amazing Race.”

In 2024, they wrote the book “ADHD is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD.” Penn Holderness, who was diagnosed in college, shares in the book how to find humor in the pitfalls and triumphs of living with ADHD. This year they released, “All You Can Be with ADHD,” a children’s book that helps young readers see the possibilities that come with thinking differently.

The following is an excerpt of ACSA’s conversation with Penn and Kim Holderness. This conversation has been edited for brevity.

Penn — what’s the first thing that you remember from the moment that you learned ADHD applied to you?

Penn: When I got diagnosed, and this is one of the reasons we’ve written all the books, nobody said, “Hey, there’s some good sides to this.” They’re like, you have a problem. Here’s some medicine. ... But there was nothing about upsides, nothing about like, how to make the most of it.

What does it mean to be changing people’s minds about how they look at ADHD? Kim: It’s been a true gift, because we have this platform that we’re very thankful for. But I think at the end of the day, this is really a calling for Penn. ... I think the work he’s doing is to just eliminate the shame. And I was unaware about the shame that people carry with a brain difference. And so I think it’s been the greatest gift. And maybe at the end of the day, why we have this, why we were kind of lucky enough to be able to build this platform was to be able to shine a light on this one very specific thing.

For educators who are going to be at the Every Child Counts Symposium, what story from your own journey would you want them to take back to their classrooms? Penn: I would want them to know that what I’m doing now, and the job that I have, and the platform that I have ... is because of my ADHD, not in spite of it. I think a lot of people talk about succeeding in spite of this. You cannot ignore the positive sides of this sort of brain, and it’s been ignored for a very long time. Any neurodiverse child is going to have probably a tough time understanding that when they are, let’s say, 8. But look at me — big smiles, very happy. A better world with ADHD is out there for every child.

Kim: And the reason he is here and can do all these things is because he had amazing, wonderful teachers along the way. And they didn’t know about ADHD back then. They just knew that he needed to move around a lot, and they accommodated. They accommodated before accommodations were a thing. So we are in debt to teachers. We love our teachers. We’re offspring of teachers. So it is critically important the work they are doing and I just bow down to teachers, especially those working with the neuro-diverse.