Jessica Chudasama-Alloway (she/they)
“I grew up being made to believe that we were a strong family, and I was strong, intelligent and wise. I was meant to help other people, I wasn’t someone that should need help myself. When that mask slipped and I reached out, I eventually found that really I was a part of a wonderful, diverse community of Autistic people. I found that needing help doesn’t make you weak (blah blah, Chloe write it for me I’m just a Jessica I can’t do this 😅 – basically baby Jessica wasn’t allowed to need help. Bigger Jessica was crap. Auti Jessica sees how this is much better).”
– Jessica Chudasama-Alloway
Jessica (she/they) is Aucademy’s part-time Administrative Manager. Jess completed a degree in Psychology, and while a student discovered her Autistic identity, and was diagnosed in 2020.
Jessica met Chloe and Annette through the University of Kent Autistic group, and worked through their So, You’re Autistic? pre- and post-diagnostic programme – twice!
Jessica was one of the Autie Gang in Annette Fosters, Adventures of Super Autie Gang, performed in the Summer of 2019.
Due to Jessica’s background and involvement with Chloe and Annette’s work, Jess has been supporting So, You’re Autistic and Aucademy to deliver training on Autistic experience, and is knowledgeable about the lived experience of hallucinations.
Jessica also experiences synaesthesia, and typically sees neurodivergent people as regular shapes and colours – like a red square – and sees neurotypical people as irregular shapes – like a zig zag. This is a picture of Jess in Adventures of Super Autie Gang, “diagnosing” non-autistic people before they sat down for the show (their “diagnosis” label was removed at the end of the show).
