Autistic people have made our site an international beacon of hope and source of information for the neurodivergent community.
In this post, I would like to share fifteen articles and poems to celebrate the way that autistic people experience the world differently. Many autistic people are trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, and a word like “Women’s” might only be an incomplete way to characterize someone whose relationship with gender is more complicated.
Including nonbinary people may feel to them as if they’re being misgendered. Or excluding them may seem to deny a real part of their identity. For this reason, it’s always best to respect the choices of individuals. Nonbinary contributors in this list have given their consent to be included.
1. One of my favorite articles from all time is from Yana, a queer, autistic person of color who is one of the most talented poets and writers I’ve ever read. This article is what I consider to be the grand autistic anthem.
Why I Choose Autistic Pride
2. Jen Bluhm is a brilliant and talented singer, songwriter, and writer known as Waltzing on Waves. This article contains a YouTube of one of her songs.
Bittersweet is My Favorite Word
3. M is a Black woman with a background in academic philosophy. This article on alexithymia is one of the most insightful, relatable, and humanizing I’ve seen to date on the topic. She’s one of the founding members of this site.
No, Really, I’m Fine (on Alexithymia)
4. Different Not Deficient is a PDA autistic and ADHDer who writes some of the most honest, warm, and sometimes hilarious articles on all things autism. This is usually the first article I send to parents of newly diagnosed children.
20 Top Tips for Raising An Autistic Child
5. OneLoneDandelion is an autistic mother to an autistic son with apraxia of speech. This article is about how she had coped with her own communication issues and how she has supported her child.
Verbal and Written Communication: The Disconnect
6. Chris Breedt is a nonbinary AFAB autistic who is one of my go-to sources of wisdom for all things autistic, advocacy, and interpersonal. I found tremendous inspiration in this piece to keep persisting in the face of failure, recognizing that when entering new territory or abolishing great feats, failure is the norm.
How mastering the Vault taught me better advocacy
7. Taylor Linloff is a a queer nonbinary femme/woman aligned nonbinary autistic who wrote this beautiful piece on experiencing grief as an autistic person. This piece still resonates with me and my own grief journey.
The Most Painful Expression of Love
8. Wolf Traverso is a lesbian autistic woman who pioneered the #OurGoldenMoment movement to take back April and place the narrative for Autism Awareness Acceptance Month in the hands of autistics. This article is on gender presentation and sensory processing.
Gender Presentation – An Autistic Perspective
9. Gee is a trans woman, writer, and editor and a part of the admin team here at NeuroClastic. Her writing is mighty, as you can see from this article on autism and gender.
Autism and Gender
10. Melissa Simmonds is a Black autistic campaigner, mother, non-profit founder, writer, poet, singer, and all around badass advocate. This poem on Black history shows that the weight of centuries of oppression is very much a living history Black mothers experience.
Poetry: Two Voyages to CommonWEALTH
11. N Liggon is a 26 year old woman with special interests in psychology, body language, film, and perception. She’s one of the founding members of this site. This article is on finding yourself after a diagnosis and in finding joy in the strengths of her neurology.
Ode to Joy
12. Barbara Herrán is one of my most favorite advocates and women in the world. An autistic woman in Peru, she is a pivotal figure of the neurodiversity movement for Spanish speaking countries. This article, Jalisco Never Loses, highlights communication issues in relationships.
Jalisco Never Loses: Autism, Loneliness, Relationships, & Learning to Lose
13. Samantha Stein is an autistic YouTuber and mother who always has the most profound insights. Here’s an article on being demisexual and autistic that really explained how many autistics approach relationships.
Demisexuality and autism
14. HiddenAmongstTheCrowd is a #NeuroLurker, a mother, and an occupational therapist. This article looks at existing in that space where you’re not sure if you’re autistic, or not, and feeling unable to identify or belong in either world.
Between Labels: Living neuro-confused in a neurotypical world
15. And last, but certainly not least, is Mónica Vidal Gutiérrez, a Columbian mother who has also lived in Argentina, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. She is probably the first woman writing in Spanish as an autistic woman championing the neurodiversity paradigm. She translates articles and is an organizer for the neurodiversity collectives Mi Cerebro Atípico, Traduciendo Autistas Autismo, and Liberación y Orgullo. This article looks at how “Evidence based” in ABA advertisement is more of a marketing campaign than a scientific qualifier.
https://neuroclastic.com/2019/12/11/on-aba-evidence-based-doesnt-mean-good-therapy/
It was hard to do this article because there are just too many wonderful writers here who have helped me and so many others better understand ourselves as women– whatever that means to an individual– that I kept upping the number of articles I would include.
Please take the time to learn from autistic perspectives, and value diversity in race, in ethnicity, in gender identity, in age, in geography, and in ability.
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