Our Story
Spring Sunshine was founded in 2023 by Eunsoo Lee, whose brother was diagnosed with ADHD and Social Communication Disorder.
When Eunsoo’s brother was in elementary school, he refused to go to school. At the time, Eunsoo and her parents thought that he was just being rebellious. Later, they found out that it was because the learning environment he was placed in did not suit him. As a student with ADHD and Social Communication Disorder, Eunsoo’s brother had to face many hardships at school: having to sit still in front of desks for extended periods of time, listening to long lectures, and communicating with teachers and peers who communicated with non-verbal cues that only they could understand. Teachers and peers alike misunderstood him and thought of him as a “lazy, rebellious” student.
“However, in truth, her brother is the opposite. He was a child who read an entire encyclopedia in a single day, memorized hundreds of car models, and had an inextinguishable curiosity about insects and plants. He is a person with many strengths and the potential to flourish, yet stigma and misunderstandings reduce him to a mere “problem kid.
In hopes of raising awareness of ADHD and other neurological differences, Eunsoo began uploading stories of her brother on Instagram. She drew cartoons depicting ADHD life to portray neurological differences in a friendly and humane way. But she still wanted to do more.
While watching the K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Eunsoo was inspired by the quote “You are like a spring sunshine.” In the drama, the autistic attorney Woo Youngwoo is bullied and excluded by her classmates in law school. But her friend Choi Suyeon was on her side; by telling Youngwoo important changes to class schedules or classroom locations and reminding her about assignments and assessments, Suyeon aided Youngwoo in unleashing her full potential as a competent lawyer. Youngwoo later thanks Suyeon for her warm personality and efforts by comparing her to a spring sunshine.
Eunsoo, too, wanted to be of similar existence. In addition to raising awareness of neurodiversity, she wanted to make tangible change in order to make her community a neurodiversity-friendly place. This is why she founded Spring Sunshine: to foster a more understanding and inclusive space for neurodivergent teens in the South Korean public school system.