Autistic and Proud

My community makes me proud to be Autistic every day. June 18th marks autistic pride day. This will be my first pride celebration. To celebrate I have gathered some of the words from my #ActuallyAutistic peers

Autistic pride points out that autistic people have always been an important part of human culture. Being autistic is a form of neurodiversity and not something that needs to be cured or pitied and this is our day to celebrate!

Awareness goes a long way

It wasn’t until I got my diagnosis at 29 this year that the feeling of being a bit different my whole life made sense. The image in popular culture of a person with Autism is a male, introverted, math genius. I am an artist, sometimes loud and cheeky and a decidedly average mathematician. Nobody ever told me Autism could look like me; no teacher, doctor or psychologist (trust me there were a lot) I saw introduced the possibility despite me displaying many of the characteristics of autism and even suggesting that I may have Autism myself directly! I think it is vital that more Autistic voices get amplified and more often!

Sharing my workmates and peers stories

No two autistic people are alike and if we have more conversations there will be better outcomes for everyone at work, home and school, including kids finding out what makes them tick sooner and fully embracing themselves.

So when I was invited to write a post for Autistic Pride Day I knew straight away that I wanted to gather all of my amazing workmates and peers stories on what makes them proud to be autistic and what autistic pride day means to them.

Swipe the images below to see what these exceptional humans think about Autistic pride day: