Media & Speaking
Why I Felt Different — A Memoir by Lisa Ramos
Lisa Ramos
Lisa Ramos is the author of Why I Felt Different, a memoir exploring a lifetime of feeling different without understanding why, nearly 30 years of personal journaling, serious health challenges, creativity, entrepreneurship, and her late-in-life diagnosis of autism, ADHD, and dyslexia.
About Lisa Ramos
Lisa Ramos is an author, artist, designer, and the founder of MONOLISA, the handmade jewelry and handbag business she launched in 2017. Her path to becoming an artist and entrepreneur came later in life, following decades of experiences that often left her wondering why she seemed to experience the world differently from the people around her.
After surviving cancer, navigating significant health challenges, building a creative business, and spending nearly 30 years privately documenting her life through personal journals, Lisa began looking more closely at the patterns that had followed her since childhood. A late-in-life diagnosis of autism, ADHD, and dyslexia finally gave her a new way to understand experiences that had once seemed unrelated.
About Why I Felt Different
For much of her life, Lisa Ramos felt different without understanding why. School was difficult, routines and predictability brought comfort, many environments overwhelmed her, and things that seemed easy for other people could require considerably more effort.
Why I Felt Different follows Lisa through childhood, difficult relationships, ovarian cancer, family life, entrepreneurship, serious health challenges, and ultimately a late-in-life diagnosis of autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. Looking back across decades of experiences, she begins to understand how the pieces of her life fit together.
Nearly 30 Years of Journaling
For nearly 30 years—more than half her life—Lisa documented her experiences, challenges, relationships, health, and private thoughts in personal journals. What began as a way to process her life eventually became an extraordinary record of the patterns, struggles, and questions she couldn't yet explain. Those journals became an important part of telling her story in Why I Felt Different.
Topics Lisa Can Speak About
Late-Diagnosed Autism, ADHD & Dyslexia
Personal reflections on reaching adulthood without understanding why certain aspects of life felt different, and what changed after receiving answers later in life.
Nearly 30 Years of Personal Journaling
How decades of journals preserved experiences, struggles, questions, and details that later helped Lisa look back across her life with a new understanding.
Writing a Memoir Later in Life
What finally gave Lisa the courage to begin the book she had wanted to write for years, and how personal journals became part of reconstructing her story.
Serious Illness & Changing Priorities
How cancer and later health challenges changed Lisa's relationship with time, work, priorities, and the stories she still wanted to tell.
Creativity & Entrepreneurship Later in Life
How a lifelong fascination with fashion, jewelry, and design eventually became MONOLISA and opened an unexpected creative chapter in Lisa's late forties.
Building a Life Around a Differently Wired Brain
Reflections on routines, sensory experiences, communication, creativity, work, and learning to understand personal needs through a new lens.
Available For
Podcast Interviews
Long-form conversations about Lisa's memoir, late diagnosis, journaling, creativity, health experiences, entrepreneurship, and the process of understanding a lifetime of feeling different.
Author Interviews
Interviews centered on Why I Felt Different, Lisa's writing process, the experiences behind the memoir, and what led her to finally tell her story.
Media Interviews
Available for articles, publications, online media, personal profiles, and conversations related to the themes explored in Lisa's life and memoir.
Speaking Engagements
Available for organizations, creative communities, author events, neurodivergent communities, women's groups, and other events where Lisa's personal experience may contribute to a meaningful conversation.
Suggested Interview Questions
What made you finally begin writing the book you had been afraid to write?
How did nearly 30 years of personal journals shape Why I Felt Different?
What changed when you were diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia later in life?
Looking back after your diagnosis, what experiences from childhood suddenly began to make sense?
How did serious illness change the way you thought about time and the stories you still wanted to tell?
What role did creativity and eventually MONOLISA play in understanding yourself?
Why was journaling such an important part of your life long before you decided to write a memoir?
What do you hope readers who have spent years feeling different will take away from your story?
Media & Podcast Features
Lisa Ramos and MONOLISA have previously been featured in interviews, podcasts, and media stories related to creativity, handmade business, jewelry, dyslexia, and artist life.
Artist & Founder of MONOLISA
Creativity became an unexpected part of Lisa's story later in life. In 2017, she founded MONOLISA, an independent handmade jewelry and handbag business. Through years of exhibiting at juried art shows, designing and making her work by hand, and connecting directly with customers, entrepreneurship became another important chapter in her life.
Interested in Interviewing or Booking Lisa?
Lisa is available for podcast interviews, author and media interviews, speaking engagements, and conversations related to Why I Felt Different and the experiences and themes explored in her memoir.