About Me Gabrie'le Eato

Hi! 🤍

My name is Gabby, and I have autism and ADHD.

For a long time, I struggled within myself because I was so focused outward that I began neglecting who I was as a person. I spent too much time thinking about what would make other people happy, what they expected from me, and what I thought I needed to become.

Being neurodivergent can sometimes make this especially difficult. Somewhere along the way, many of us receive the message that who we naturally are is somehow not okay.

We live in a world that often teaches us that we have to prove our worth and our value, even when our worth was never something we had to earn in the first place. We are taught to completely attach ourselves to titles, labels, accomplishments, people, recognition, careers, numbers, and other things in order to prove who we are.

I believe that when we truly have love in our hearts, we begin to understand our true essence, our true being, and our true worth. Labels and accomplishments can identify pieces of our lives. They can help us understand ourselves, acknowledge important experiences, access support, celebrate growth, or recognize things that deserve attention. But they are not the entirety of who we are.

When we know who we are, we can develop a deeper appreciation for the opportunities, experiences, accomplishments, and blessings around us without making them the source of our identity.

Who we are as people is what makes us beautiful. Our hearts, our kindness, our joy, our creativity, our compassion, our goodness, our differences, and the way we choose to love matter deeply. For a period of my life, my identity became so connected to labels and things outside of myself that I forgot how much of what I was searching for was already within me.

Learning Not to Prove My Worth

I have built a platform of more than 127,000 followers, I am a verified content creator, I have received recognition for my work, and I own three businesses. I am grateful for those things, and I do believe accomplishments, labels, milestones, awards, recognition, and even numbers can be meaningful.

As someone who works professionally in marketing and has helped many people with marketing and personal branding, including people with experience advising Fortune 500 companies, I understand that metrics matter. Systems matter. Presentation matters. Strategy matters.

But I also think we have reached a point where metrics and systems can begin to receive more importance than humanity itself.

Social media constantly teaches us to follow a system, adapt to an algorithm, present ourselves a certain way, and do what performs best. Systems can be useful and necessary, but systems should still be human. They should serve people rather than stripping people of their value, individuality, or worth.

For me, the lesson has been about balance.

I have gone through phases where I completely hid myself because I did not like being different. I am learning now that being different is not something I have to run from or hide.

I am really good at some things, and I struggle significantly with other things. Creativity and pattern recognition are areas where I am especially strong.

For a long time, I tried to hide some of those strengths because I was worried people would make assumptions about me. I am learning that I cannot build my identity around what someone else may or may not assume. I know my heart. I know my intentions. I know what I value. If someone chooses not to take the time to understand my heart, I cannot make their interpretation the foundation of how I see myself.

I have also gone through the opposite phase, where I felt the need to share every accomplishment and everything I was good at because I was trying to prove my worth and my value.

I got tired of feeling unseen.

As someone with autism and ADHD, I have often felt misunderstood, overlooked, or pushed to the back. That can hurt. It can create a very real desire for approval, validation, attention, or reassurance that you matter.

When I was younger, children at school bullied me because I was different. I became so focused on how other people saw me that the pain contributed to a period where I nearly lost my life. I was looking so far outside of myself for acceptance that I had lost sight of what was within me.

What I have learned is that I do not have to live at either extreme. I do not have to hide the greatness God has placed within me, and I also do not have to prove that I am worthy.

I can celebrate who I am. I can celebrate the things I am good at. I can share accomplishments and be proud of the work behind them while remaining grounded in the truth that my worth existed before any award, title, number, recognition, or accomplishment ever happened.

For a long time, I overshadowed parts of my creativity by focusing too much on what other people were doing, what they thought, what they wanted, and what I believed I needed to prove.

I now understand that when I am truly operating in who I am, I do not have to force everything. I do not have to constantly prove or perform who I am for other people. The way I live, the way I create, the way I love, the way I work, and the way I carry myself can speak for themselves.

I also do not believe humility means hiding your greatness, your gifts, your goodness, or the things you have worked hard to achieve.

To me, humility means being no less and no more than who God has called you to be.

We are often taught that life is about constantly becoming better, stronger, more accomplished, or somehow greater than the world around us. Growth matters, and I believe we should continue learning and becoming the best version of ourselves, but I also think we forget how important it is to simply be.

There is something powerful about learning to love yourself where you are while still allowing yourself to grow. You do not have to spend your entire life trying to become someone else's idea of your best self. You do not have to become who someone else wants you to be in order to live a meaningful life.

To me, being the best version of yourself means becoming the healthiest, happiest, most loving, grounded, and authentic version of who you already are. It is not someone else's best version of you. It is not the version of you that receives the most approval. It is the version of you that can live peacefully and honestly within yourself.

I think there is so much freedom in learning how to simply be. To be present. To be grateful. To be growing without believing that who you are today has no value until you become something more.

No one else is experiencing this world exactly the way you are. Every person is living an individual human experience—with their own mind, memories, struggles, strengths, relationships, perspective, faith, and understanding of the world around them.

We may share this life together, but each of us is experiencing it through a perspective that is uniquely our own.

That is why I do not believe life has to be a constant competition to be better than someone else. I believe it is about learning who you are, loving who you are, continuing to grow, and living fully within the life God has given you.

You do not have to live to be better than the world around you. Sometimes, the most meaningful thing you can learn is how to simply be—and to become the best version of you.

I can celebrate what God has allowed me to do without making things outside of myself my identity. I can share the good in my life without worrying about every assumption someone else may make. Their interpretation does not define me.

My responsibility is to stay grounded, grateful, honest, loving, and true to who I am.

The truth became much simpler than I once made it: I needed love to be the foundation of who I was. When I began understanding who God created me to be, I no longer needed accomplishments to explain my value, and I no longer needed to hide them to prove my humility.

Being Human and Supporting One Another

We are often taught to change ourselves—both qualities that may genuinely need growth and qualities that are simply different.

Growth is important. Accountability is important. There are things about all of us that may need guidance, healing, discipline, correction, or change. But I do not believe every single quality needs to be changed simply because someone else does not understand it or because it does not fit a certain image.

God did not make a mistake when He made me.

There are things I used to do that I needed to grow from, and there are still things I do today that are imperfect. I am still learning. I am still growing. I will continue to make mistakes because I am human.

But I have also learned that imperfection is part of being human. Our imperfections are part of what make all of us beautiful.

I do not believe we have to change the core of who we are in order to make other people happy. We can become healthier, wiser, more loving, more accountable, and more self-aware without erasing the qualities that make us uniquely ourselves.

At the same time, I believe community is a two-way responsibility. There are areas where I may need other people to accommodate, support, or better understand me. There will also be times when I need to accommodate, support, listen to, and better understand them.

It is about balance.

None of us should expect everyone else to constantly adjust around us, and none of us should have to erase who we are just to make everyone else comfortable.

I believe the goal is to live in community where we meet one another in love. We learn each other. We communicate. We listen. We compromise when it is healthy. We create boundaries when they are needed. We make room for different needs, personalities, communication styles, and ways of thinking while recognizing that consideration and support can move in both directions.

I have worked with many organizations, teams, families, and communities over the years, and those experiences have shaped the way I understand people.

I was recognized as Employee of the Month while working at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. I have worked with OhioHealth. I previously worked as a behavior therapist, and I originally began my education as a nursing major before moving more deeply into psychology. My experience has also included supporting people across different ages and stages of life, including geriatric populations.

Those experiences taught me that people are complex. No single title, diagnosis, age, role, accomplishment, or environment tells you everything about a person.

Whether I was working in healthcare, behavioral support, psychology, advocacy, business, marketing, or creative spaces, I kept coming back to the same lesson: people want to feel respected, understood, safe, valued, and human.

I have also been in spaces where people told me to remove things that felt like me—even something as simple as a picture of my dog.

I have been told to remove things, change parts of myself, or present myself a certain way in order to fit someone else's idea of how I should be.

Over time, I realized that I do not want to build my life around someone else's idea of who I am supposed to be.

To me, real richness is found in God, in love, in living with purpose and intention, and in honoring the qualities the Lord has already given us.

The way I want to live is for people.

God created me in His image, and I want to use what He has given me to honor people, create meaningful work, and build a beautiful community around me.

There is nothing wrong with doing better, growing, building, or accomplishing great things. I believe you should always aim to become the best version of yourself.

But your best version of yourself is not found in someone else's opinion of you. It is not found in becoming their version of who you should be.

I believe in growth. I love seeing other people win. I want people to succeed. But I have also seen how easy it can be to lose touch with who you truly are when you begin following a pattern that constantly tells you that who you are right now is not enough.

I do not believe you have to erase yourself to become successful.

It is powerful to be yourself. It is beautiful to love yourself. It is freeing to live in truth.

Work With the Mind, Not Against It

As a psychometrist, I have worked in autism and ADHD evaluation and have seen how deeply families can want the best for their children. Sometimes that desire can become pressure to change a child into something that feels more “normal.”

I believe support should begin with honoring who a person is and learning how to work with their mind, not against it.

Yes, there are behaviors that may need guidance, boundaries, support, treatment, or correction. But not every difference needs to be erased simply because it does not fit what someone else considers normal.

What is “normal,” anyway?

Everyone thinks differently. Everyone processes differently. Everyone communicates, learns, responds, and experiences the world in their own way.

At the same time, I think it is important to be honest that some people have greater support needs in certain areas than others.

I know that personally.

There are areas of my life where I am very independent, creative, capable, and strong, and there are other areas where I struggle significantly and need substantial support.

Both can be true at the same time.

Needing substantial support in one area does not erase someone's strengths in another. Needing help does not take away from a person's intelligence, value, creativity, dignity, humanity, or ability to live a meaningful life.

The goal is not to pretend that every difference is easy or that every challenge should simply be accepted without support.

Some behaviors need guidance. Some challenges need treatment, structure, accommodations, intervention, or help.

But support should help a person live more safely, fully, confidently, and authentically. It should not exist simply to erase every part of someone that does not fit another person's definition of normal.

I believe our differences can be part of what makes the world beautiful. Life is too short to spend all of it trying to become a version of yourself that feels acceptable to everyone else.

Choosing Who God Created Me to Be

For so long, I thought I was ugly. I hated parts of who I was. I questioned myself, compared myself, and looked for approval from people and environments that were not always able to love me in the way I needed.

Today, I stand much more confidently in who God created me to be.

I believe He does not make mistakes.

I believe I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

I believe a diagnosis or label can be important. It can help us understand ourselves, identify areas where we need support, access accommodations or services, communicate our experiences, and find language for things we may not have understood before.

Autism and ADHD have helped me understand important parts of myself. But a label does not define the entirety of who I am.

Autism and ADHD are part of my story, but they are not the whole story.

What also defines me is my love for the world, my heart, my joy, my goodness, my creativity, my faith, my compassion, my experiences, and the strength I have found in knowing who I am.

Advocacy, Community, and Purpose

Today, I have partnered and collaborated with many organizations, professionals, communities, and people to talk about suicide prevention, mental health, neurodiversity, accessibility, love, inclusion, and helping people understand their value and worth.

I want people to understand that choosing themselves does not mean becoming selfish or refusing to grow.

It means honoring who God created you to be, walking in the blessing already placed on your life, and recognizing that you are not a mistake.

My connection to suicide prevention is personal.

What I went through could have cost me my life, but it does not have to cost someone else theirs.

If my experiences can help one person feel more understood, more supported, more valued, or more willing to keep going, then sharing them has purpose.

I feel incredibly blessed for the experiences life has taught me—the joyful ones, the painful ones, the confusing ones, and even the ones I never would have chosen for myself.

They have changed the way I see people, pain, purpose, faith, identity, community, and love.

I hope I can continue to impact the world in a positive way and help create a world where we love one another more.

I believe love should always be the foundation. Love can heal, protect, guide, restore, correct with compassion, and make room for people to simply be.

Love will always be the answer.