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Ever since she was six years old, Fannie Flagg had wanted to be a writer, but her dyslexia delayed that career.
"I was, am, severely dyslexic and couldn’t spell — (I) still can’t spell," Flagg told CNN. "So I was discouraged from writing and embarrassed."
Flagg decided to get into television, where she began her career as a news anchor and eventually worked her way up to co-host Candid Camera and made appearances in The New Dick Van Dyke Show and a few movies. However, during her time at Candid Camera, she would hide her sketches in fear that people would find out she can’t spell.
While in her 30s, Flagg decided to begin to write. She attended a writer’s conference and wrote a short story that won her top honors. Flagg’s success right off the bat led her to pursue a new career as a writer, and soon after, she penned her most famous work, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.
"I have been through very bad times and very good times, and I can remember when I was writing Fried Green Tomatoes, I went through [a bad time]," Flagg said. "And yet I found out I was happier than I’d ever been because my priorities were straight and I was doing something I loved."
Flagg has since written several other novels, and her most famous work, Fried Green Tomatoes, has been turned into an Oscar-nominated film.