Aucademy in discussion: Four Autistic women and their Autistic journeys
Recorded and originally aired: Sat 27th June, 20:00-22:00 BST/London
In this video four Aucademy Educators discuss their journey to discovering their Autistic identities.
Talk outline:
1. Chloe’s journey (she/they) – growing up as an Autistic child not knowing she was Autistic; discovering later in life why she was always “weird”; isolated and alone; finding the Autistic community and relationships; challenges and strengths
2. Linara’s journey (she) – dyslexia; bullying and impact later in life; Autistic relationships
3. Jess’s journey (she) – adult diagnosis; synaesthesia; connecting with the Autistic community
4. Annette’s journey (she/they) – adult diagnosis, misdiagnosis, needing to articulate women, non-binary, and trans people’s experiences; the importance of Autistic culture and language, e.g. stimming, and why it’s important
We end with asking the audience to engage in mindful stimming with us and how it feels to be pulled out of it.
We created this video for free, but we would welcome a very small donation so that we may pay the speakers for their time and work. Please consider donating £1 here.
Thanks so much; that was great: informative, thoughtful, educative, inspiring. I’ve donated a fiver for you, which I hope helps you continue this important work you all do.
Incidentally, I was stimming with a turquoise spotty doorknob (that I’d yet to attach to the coffee table drawer I was sitting next to), and it made an unexpectedly good stim! (Fab for flicking the nut up and down the screw.) As to stopping? I didn’t. I thought, ‘Nobody’s going to make me stop stimming, certainly not in my own home!’ But when I did stop, what did I find myself doing? Going back to rocking back and forward (of course)!
From a 57-year-old diagnosed semi-self-diagnosed autie (officially dx’d with dyspraxia and adult ADHD), and a synaesthete to boot) 🙂
Thank you so much! Any contributions help us continue to pay Autistic speakers. Thank you for sharing about stimming! Always love hearing about people’s stims <3 If you're on Facebook we deliver free lives every Saturday, 20:00 London time. Maybe see you in the comments section? =)
Thanks. I’m not great at doing things ‘live’ in the evenings (if you know what I mean): but so grateful to be able to hear ‘live’ conversations from #actuallyautistic folk, albeit after the event. Books and blogs can be – and are – hugely helpful, but there’s nothing like seeing and hearing what other autistics experience directly. Big non-tactile hugs to you all <3