Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruth Danoff.
Hi Ruth, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you. Here’s the corrected version:
I spent most of my adult life pushing hard, over-functioning, and quietly wondering why ordinary things felt so much harder than they seemed to be for other people. I could rise to a crisis, hold a lot at once, and look capable from the outside. What people didn’t see was the executive dysfunction underneath: the struggle to start, the lost details, the time that disappeared, the constant effort it took just to keep life moving.
I built a career through secretarial work, corporate roles, and multiple layoffs. For years I treated those struggles as personal failings. At 50, I was diagnosed with ADHD. That diagnosis didn’t just explain my focus and big emotions. It finally named the gap I had lived with for decades—the distance between knowing what needed to be done and being able to get myself to do it.
In 2024 I was laid off from my last corporate job. Instead of going back into the same kind of work, I started building from my own life. That path led to my memoir, *Holy ADHD: A Late Diagnosis, Loud Feelings and Divine Timing*, my platform NotRUTHless for women navigating midlife and late-diagnosed ADHD, and Arctic Undies, cooling underwear created from my own experience with temperature dysregulation and menopause.
Today I’m an entrepreneur and advocate based in Raleigh. I still live with the same brain. The difference is that I no longer treat executive dysfunction as a character flaw. I treat it as information—and I use what I’ve learned to help other women feel less alone and more at home in themselves.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has not been a smooth road.
For a long time the biggest struggle was invisible: executive dysfunction that I didn’t have a name for. I could look capable from the outside and still fight to start simple tasks, keep track of details, and follow through without burning myself out. I spent years treating that as a personal failing instead of a brain difference.
The late ADHD diagnosis at 50 brought relief, but it also brought grief. There was a period of looking backward and thinking about the years spent over-functioning, masking, and blaming myself. Unlearning that “ruthless armor” has been its own work.
The business side has been uneven too. After being laid off in 2024, I started building Arctic Undies and NotRUTHless from scratch as a solo founder. That has meant wearing every hat, raising early support, applying for grants, and pushing a product forward while still in the pre-prototype stage. There have been delays, closed doors, and plenty of days when the gap between the vision and the next practical step felt enormous.
Writing *Holy ADHD* was another kind of struggle. Putting a private story into the world required honesty, stamina, and a willingness to be seen. Launching a book while also building a company has meant holding two demanding paths at once.
What has changed is not that the road got easy. What changed is that I stopped treating the hard parts as proof that I was doing life wrong. The struggles are still there. I just meet them with more understanding now.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work at the intersection of late-diagnosed ADHD, midlife, and women’s lived experience. Through my memoir *Holy ADHD: A Late Diagnosis, Loud Feelings and Divine Timing*, my platform NotRUTHless, and my company Arctic Undies, I help women who have spent years feeling “too much,” “not enough,” or quietly out of step with their own lives.
I specialize in putting language to what many women have carried without a name: late diagnosis, executive dysfunction, menopause-related temperature dysregulation, and the long habit of pushing through instead of understanding themselves. I’m known for telling the truth about that experience in a way that is personal, practical, and compassionate rather than clinical or polished.
What I’m most proud of is turning what I lived through into something useful for other people. The book gives women a story they can recognize themselves in. NotRUTHless creates space for self-compassion instead of self-attack. Arctic Undies came from a real physical problem I could not find a good solution for, and I’m building it so other women don’t have to keep managing that discomfort in silence.
What sets me apart is that this work is not theoretical. I didn’t arrive at it from the outside. I built it from the inside of the problem: a late diagnosis at 50, years of over-functioning, a layoff that forced a reset, and the decision to create from lived experience rather than wait for someone else to do it. I speak as a woman still in the process, not as someone who has arrived with a perfect system. That honesty is the difference.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can work with me, collaborate with me, or support this work in a few clear ways.
If the book speaks to them, the simplest support is buying *Holy ADHD: A Late Diagnosis, Loud Feelings and Divine Timing*, leaving a review, and sharing it with a friend or book club. That helps other women find the story.
For Arctic Undies, people can join the waitlist, share the concept with women who deal with hot flashes or temperature dysregulation, and—if they are in product development, textiles, manufacturing, or women’s health—reach out about prototyping, testing, or partnership.
For NotRUTHless, collaboration can look like speaking invitations, workshops, podcast interviews, peer circles, or community partnerships focused on late-diagnosed ADHD, midlife, and self-compassion.
Investors, grantors, and advisors who care about femtech and women’s health can support the next stage of Arctic Undies: prototype development, testing, and early go-to-market work.
The easiest first step is to reach out through my website or email and tell me how you’d like to be involved. I’m always open to conversations that help more women feel less alone and more supported.
Pricing:
- Clarity Calls – $77/hr
- Book – $24.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.notRUTHless.com
- Instagram: @notRUTHlessADHD
- Facebook: @notRUTHlessADHD
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthdanoff
