Autistic and Living the Dream

Category: Autistic culture

  • The New Normal audiobook review

    The New Normal audiobook review

    I have had the pleasure to listen to Emergent Divergence audiobook The New Normal: Autistic musings on the threat of a broken society. It is perhaps more poignant and powerful when listened to than simply read. The narrator Christopher Harper-Cox brings something to the reading with his deep resonance. The audio version brings to life…

  • Understanding Autistic friendships

    Understanding Autistic friendships

    Friendships have always been something I have struggled with, I have always been more ‘in to’ the person than they are me. I used to put so much of myself into my connections that when things ended it felt heartbreaking. I was basing friendships off TV shows like Friends and Fraser – that friends should…

  • My thoughts on BBC’s Inside Our Autistic Minds

    My thoughts on BBC’s Inside Our Autistic Minds

    Despite my initial worry, the first episode – and I’m hoping the ones that follow – show Autistic experiences, namely that of Chris Packham himself, Murray (a non-speaking Autistic man) and Flo, an Autistic woman who has been long term masking with everyone in her life…

  • Stories from across the “double rainbow”: trans and non-binary Autistic narratives [plain language summary]

    Stories from across the “double rainbow”: trans and non-binary Autistic narratives [plain language summary]

    In my research I spoke to 13 trans and / or non-binary Autistic people (people said to live under the double rainbow of neurodivergence and queerness). I wanted to know about their lives, what they thought about representation and their recommendations for double rainbow research. It was important for me to do this work as…

  • Autistic shielding: reclaiming my weird

    Autistic shielding: reclaiming my weird

    As I have written before, Autistic shielding involves being authentic in our Autistic embodiment (What is Autistic shielding?). This allows us to turn away intolerant people and find our neurokin. My Autistic embodiment involves an uncontrollably expressive face, singing the same jingle or song over and over, talking to myself, narrating all my daily activities,…

  • The Autistic Revolution: the magazine for us by us

    The Autistic Revolution: the magazine for us by us

    The first issue is out now! Access for FREE here. Jenny Loughran (Celebrating the Neurodiversity programme) and Callum Brazzo (Autistic Led) are developing an Autistic led quarterly magazine called Autistic Revolution. They intend to become a constituted group so they are able to pay Autistic contributors. Too often Autistic people are asked to take part…

  • I won’t apologise for my neurotype

    I won’t apologise for my neurotype

    I will apologise for things I’ve done wrong and I’ll do my best to grow and change with whatever new information I’ve been graced with. I don’t know everything, I’m not perfect and life is bloody hard. So I try not to be so hard on myself. There is one thing I absolutely will not…

  • Trans and Autistic: sorting my gender after diagnosis

    Trans and Autistic: sorting my gender after diagnosis

    I have always been weird. At school I always played alone at breaktimes, I talked to myself as I explored the sports field and wild areas of the playground. In my pockets I collected interesting things I found; acorns, a shiny rock, part of a bird egg. I was happy in my distant reveries, often…

  • Heartbreak high: Autistic representation done right

    Heartbreak high: Autistic representation done right

    I have been waiting for Quinni – an Autistic girl played by an Autistic actress – my whole life. What I love about Quinni is that not only is she Autistic, she is openly a lesbian. Most media with lesbian characters are full of trauma around understanding their identity and coming out. And although that…

  • Trans and Autistic: the importance of online groups

    Trans and Autistic: the importance of online groups

    The internet has become a place in which transgender+ Autistic people can gain access to resources, ideas and language to describe our gender and neurological identities. Using online support groups allows me to find out more about myself and how I relate to others as a late diagnosed Autistic gender divergent person. Having safe spaces…