NeurobeautifulWhat does self-care look like for an autistic person? It might include bubble baths and pedicures, but it’s also anything that rejuvenates us.
Stimming is one example that’s well-known and well-loved – at least by autistics! We automatically do it in reaction to stress or excitement, but scheduling time just to stim is a kind …
“You are so cute!”
My boyfriend said this as I was telling him about something exciting, and expressing my excitement in a particularly autistic way – tilting my head, bending my wrists, hiding behind my hands – letting myself move in ways I often resist around others.
It amazed me, as it always does, that …
Don’t spank your kids. Please, just don’t.
My parents were extra careful to remind me that they loved me, and that spanking always made them very sad. However, because they didn’t know about my autism, they didn’t realize two important things.
First, everything hurts worse when your senses are heightened. Imagine the feeling of a …
You’ll be seeing lots of #AutismAwareness posts in April – but awareness that autism EXISTS is not the same as awareness of what autistic people THINK, FEEL, and NEED.
Some say we should scrap “awareness” campaigns completely, and focus on acceptance instead. But if it’s true that “hate is just a failure of imagination,” then …
Autistic inertia is a real thing. I’ve never met an autistic person who doesn’t experience it.
What is inertia? A natural drive to continue.
What does it look like in practice? That varies from person to person, but here are some examples.
It’s more interesting to continue learning about one topic, and explore its nuances …
“Let me finish!”
I hear this a lot from autistics, whenever an interruption threatens to derail our train of thought.
I hear it a lot from non-autistics too, but the tone is very different.
Autistics say it out of desperation, begging for permission to rescue the ideas quickly slipping from our minds.
Non-autistics, on the …
I wonder how many times people told Greta Thunberg that she’d have more opportunities in life if she improved her social skills, or tamed her flyaway hair, or otherwise put more effort into fitting in and doing what was expected of her.
Anyway, she didn’t – and this week, she was nominated for the Nobel …
In the movie Tangled, a baby princess sees an emblem in her nursery before being kidnapped. Growing up, she recreates that emblem all over her prison tower, unaware that it represents royalty. When she finally learns its meaning, it causes her to realize that she is the long-lost princess.
Autism is my royalty. Its traits, …