Famous people women

Roxy Olin, 25

actress, Los Angeles, California

Roxy Olin's parents nicknamed her "Rollover, " because she did somersaults, nonstop, around the house. "I stood out because my brother was so calm and organized, " says Olin, who appears in MTV's The City and The Hills.

"My parents knew that something was off with me when I was young, " she says. "I struggled in school and got into trouble all the time. In third grade, I remember studying for an important test. I knew my spelling words backward and forward, but I got only one right because a classmate had hurt himself and had to get stitches. I was so distracted, I could barely remember a thing when I took the test."

Olin saw a doctor and was prescribed Ritalin, which didn't agree with her. She and her parents tried to manage her ADD/ADHD without medication), until she was formally diagnosed, as a teenager, and put on Adderall.

When she entered a drug rehab program that didn't allow her to take the ADD/ADHD medication, she fell apart. She got into five auto accidents in two months. Many of her friends insisted that there was no such thing as adult ADD/ADHD.

"My therapist stood up for me, telling the rehab directors that I needed Adderall. What's more, he told them that adult ADHD does exist, because he had it, " says Olin. "He eventually taught me the organization and time-management tricks that helped him succeed in his career."

Olin uses those – and other – strategies to keep herself on track in her high-profile job. "If I have a call time of 11:30, I write down 10:30." When she's on set rehearsing, she taps into her ADD/ADHD to add dimension to her characters.