I’m noticing a pattern. Among the autistic writers I follow, I’m finding out that more and more of them only discovered their autism in the past two or three years.
Maybe this is just part of a targeted algorithm to feed me relatable content. Or maybe, among those of us actively writing, there truly are a disproportionate number who’ve known our identity for more than one year and less than four.
It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s a sweet spot for advocacy writing. It means that enough time has passed to spark a hundred little revelations of sudden understanding, and not enough time has passed for the wonder of self-discovery to fade.
If you’re in that place, and you feel a drive to write, do it! Do it now. Do it while there’s fire in your bones, while the stories feel impossible to contain, while the words will spill out with less effort and more force.
It isn’t that you can’t continue later. You can! But right now is the best moment to begin.