About The Odd Ones In

Creating Belonging

The Odd Ones In is a social community for neurodivergent people in the UAE.

It's a safe space for our tribe to connect, meet up, share experiences and support each other.

Our purpose is to create a true sense of belonging, where our members can show up as their true, unmasked selves without fear of judgement.

Through our community, events and resources we hope to empower our members to embrace their neurodiversity, to build on their super powers, to find support for their challenges, and to build the skills for self-advocacy.

Our Story

The Odd Ones In is the Neurodivergent Brain Child of Sebastian Thomas, an AuDHD young person in Dubai. Having been diagnosed at 7 with Autism and ADHD, Dyspraxia and Dysgraphia, Seb embarked on his personal journey of self-discovery, learning to embrace his newly recognised super powers and proudly sharing his new identity with his friends, family and schoolmates.

Over the summer of 2024 while attending an entrepreneurship summer camp, Seb had a moment of genius and came up with the name - The Odd Ones In.

Seb loves connecting with other neurodivergent children and adults, and has found security in small group settings where he has been able to learn about his and other's neurodiversity, sharing experiences and strategies. It was this community experience that Seb wants to bring to others of his own age, as well as adults that might also be recently diagnosed (like his mum, Sophie, who is also a co-founder).

Meet our Founders

Sebastian Thomas

Founder and Youth Leader

HEY THERE! I’M SEB and I'm the co-mastermind behind The Odd Ones In!

I started this to shine a spotlight on the spectrum because let’s face it, many people feel lonely, insecure, and left out. My mission? To create a safe space where everyone in need can find their tribe in this bustling world! Let’s make belonging the new cool!

Here are some facts about me:

In our family of 5 my mum andI are both on the ND spectrum and my brother, sister and dad are neurotypical
I was born and have lived all my life in Dubai, though our family is originally from the UK
I LOVE ferrets - they are so cute, but also really mischievious! They can be so naughty!
I'm a big TechHead - I love VR, Gaming and coding and experimenting with electrical components
I'm a real prankster - I love playing jokes on my parents and siblings!

Sophie Thomas

Co-Founder and Parent Support

HI! I'm Seb's super proud mum, Sophie, and together we are bringing The Odd Ones In to life.

My neurodiversity journey started with Seb - it was in researching autism as part of his diagnostic journey that I recognised that I was also neurodivergent. I decided to reach out to his clinical team for an assessment and received my AuDHD diagnosis a week before he received his in 2021.

For the last 3 years, we've been discovering our ND superpowers, and helping each other to understand those differences that make the world a difficult place for us to navigate.

We've both experienced first hand the importance of connecting with other neurodivergent individuals - of finding our tribe - people with who we can be our true unmasked selves, who understand and accept how we uniquely experience the world and whose own experiences and learnings can support our journeys.

When Seb suggested the concept and name for The Odd Ones In, I knew that we had to make it happen - to create a space that we needed for ourselves, but also for the many ND friends we've made over the last few years.

When I'm not helping Seb follow his dreams, I'm a business mentor, supporting female, social and neurodivergent entrepreneurs to launch and grow their own passion and purpose driven businesses. And given our family love of animals (15 pets, including 4 ferrets) I also spend a lot of my free time cleaning up after them and my 3 kids!

Solene

Co-founder and ND Coach

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.