My favorite autism pages and blogs

There is a lot of information out there regarding autism since it is becoming increasingly prevalent.    As I mentioned numerous times, there is a lot of deficit based articles on the disorder  that reinforce stereotypes.  I have come across a lot of these articles, facebook posts and blogs in my lifetime and I cannot tell you how many times I was left with feeling angry and insecure about my own life as an autistic person.   I know the authors behind these articles are coming from a well meaning place but make the fallacy of overgeneralizations or stating their opinions as fact.  Luckily, there are a few sources I have came across that gave the empowerment and assurance that I needed.    These neurodiverse friendly  youtube channels, facebook pages and blogs do a great job of trying to offer useful tips and insights without taking the "what works for me should work for you" view on autism.  Most of these sources are written and/or runned by autistic self advocates but I will include two parent runned blogs and facebook pages that I feel are sympathetic to the neurodiversity paradigm.  Note: This list is based on my own experience of what pages I felt were helpful.  These are entirely my own opinions and I don't get any contributions from any of the writers or organizations by promoting their work.   I also want to disclose that all the self advocate sources I list here are by autistic females due to my own experience of being an autistic female. 

Blogs, pages and youtube channels by Autistic Self advocates

1. Amythest Schaber-  I stumbled upon Amythest's channel based on a friend's recommendation.  She has a video series called "Ask an Autistic" which discusses topics like stimming, special interests, myths about functioning labels etc.  What I like about her channel and her "Ask an Autistic" series is that she wants to promote autism acceptance through her series and to combat ableist attitudes.  She also offers advice that is useful to parents of autistic children.
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/neurowonderful

2. Autism Womens Network- This organization is completely runned by autistic women.  As we all know, girls and women are vastly underrepresented in the autism community.  I like that their website and also their facebook page features blog posts written by autistic women.  They also feature writings by autistic women of color as well as those with an atypical gender identity/orientation as well as nonverbal autistics.  I like that this organization makes the effort to include autistic voices from all walks of life rather than privileging autistics who learned to act neurotypically or who have a special talent. 

         Website:https://autismwomensnetwork.org/
           Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AutismWomensNetwork/

     3. Autistic Hoya-  This blog is runned by queer and East Asian autistic activist Lydia Brown.  She writes a lot about topics pertaining to social justice and intersectionality particularly between race and disability.  I liked that Brown herself is not only an autistic woman but also an autistic person of color which reflects my experience as well.  There are not too many role models in the autism community that are dually marginalized (e.g. being a woman and a person of color).  It is nice to find such a role model in Lydia Brown and how much advocacy work she does for a lot of autistic people.

blog: http://www.autistichoya.com/


4. Autistic Speaks-  This is a facebook page by another autistic woman Lydia Wayman.  What drew me to Wayman's blog is her outlook and views on autism are like my own.  She talks about topics like supports for those on the spectrum who are more verbal as well as the subjectivity of age appropriate interests.  I admire the fact that Lydia and her mom created a support system that was right for her which gives me hope  that it is possible to find the right fit especially when the funding and availability of supports for (especially for those with lesser support needs) autistic adults are scarce.  Unfortunately her page is only accessible for facebook users but you can try viewing her writings without logging in.

facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AutisticSpeaks/

5. Chloe Rothschild-  Chloe is another autistic young woman who is around my age who provides useful and empowering information.  Like Lydia, her page and statuses are only visible through facebook.  However she also has a page on The Mighty that I will also provide a link.  I like that Rothschild found her village after aging out of school age services.  She believes that progress and growth is possible for autistic people even when they reach adulthood.  Like me, Chloe has sensory processing issues and believes in the use of fidgets and occupational therapy.  She also uses AAC to supplement her verbal speech which shows that assisted technology apps and devices can be an option for verbal individuals on the autism spectrum.

facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/chloerothschildasd/
 
The Mighty: https://themighty.com/author/chloe-rothschild/

6. Musings of an Aspie- This is another blog by Cynthia Kim who is an adult diagnosed autistic.  What I like about Cynthia's blog is that she writes about topics that I feel are not discussed enough in the greater autism community such as the myth of independence, age appropriate interests and special interests etc.  She takes a similar viewpoint as me with these topics.  For example, in her post to demonstrate why functioning labels for autism are not useful  by making two versions of herself (a high functioning/low functioning) and gave them two different names.    She also has a store called Stimtastic which sells fidgets for both children and adults with autism.

website: https://musingsofanaspie.com/
store:https://www.stimtastic.co/

7. Unstrange Mind-  Unstrange Mind is a blog runned by autistic activist by Sparrow Rose Jones.  Like the other pages I have listed here, she offers insights about the autistic mindset as well as promoting autism acceptance.   In particular, she talks about autistic burnout and how other comorbid conditions can affect the daily lives of autistics.

website; http://unstrangemind.com/about/

8. Zoey Giesberg- Zoey is a good friend of mine and is a down to earth person.  She writes eloquently about her own experience about being autistic as well as some of the topics that affect our community such as mental health issues, autism and media portrayals etc.   I like how she is very tactful in how she words her blog posts which unlike a lot of people who write about autism is hard is hard to find.

blog: http://jumpingoutofthefishbowl.blogspot.com/

 
Parent Runned Blogs

1. The Thinking Person's guide to Autism-  This is a useful page runned by a mother of an autistic boy.    This one of the few parent runned pages that is neurodiverse friendly and believes that autistic voices should be in the center on all discussions about the disorder.  They offer useful information on a variety of topics such as stimming, self injurious behavior/aggression, policies that affect autism and disabled people, inclusion, AAC use etc.  They also promote blog posts written by autistic people on their official facebook page.

website/blog: http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thinkingpersonsguidetoautism/

2. Diary of a Mom-  This is a another parent runned page by a mother of an autistic daughter.  I stumbled across this page based on a post she wrote about age appropriate interests.  I like that she parents her daughter by consulting with other autistic adults and believes in the power of consent when sharing info and photos of her own daughter. 

blog: https://adiaryofamom.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/adiaryofamom/

This is my list of sources I feel aligned with my core values.  I liked how they had the delicate balance of trying to be helpful without alienating other autistic people and their families.  I know there are a lot of blogs written by autistic advocates that I have not listed because I only read one post and have not read enough of their posts to really get an idea what there about.    As stated in my disclaimer all the authors that are autistic self advocates are female so it is not completely objective given that your blogwriter is an also an autistic woman.  However, I feel that some of these sources will be helpful for autistic males as well.   I hope this list will be helpful for some of my readers.