Autism Interview #172: Yenn Purkis on The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide

Yenn Purkis is an autistic and non-binary author, advocate, public speaker and community leader. They also have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They are the author of nine published books on elements of autism and blog regularly. Yenn is a public speaker of almost 20 years’ experience and has presented at a range of events including for TEDx Canberra in 2013. Yenn facilitates an autism support group which has been running since 2011. Yenn has a number of media engagements both in Australia and overseas. They have a strong social media presence and have been sharing a daily meme since 2014. They have a number of awards for their work including the 2016 ACT Volunteer of the Year and 2019 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award. This week Yenn discussed their recently-published book The Awesome Autistic Go-To Guide: A Practical Handbook for Autistic Teens and Tweens.

Autism Interview #137: Alicia Trautwein on The Mom Kind

Alicia Trautwein is an Autism Advocate, Writer, Motivational Speaker, and dedicated mom of four. Alicia’s desire to advocate for Autism comes from her own autism diagnosis and that of her three children, niece, and brother. Her life’s mission is to educate on autism acceptance and change the world for future generations of autistic individuals. This week she discussed her website The Mom Kind, a resource hub offering a unique perspective to parenting children on the autism spectrum (especially multiple children).

A Preview–What Your Child on the Spectrum Really Needs: Advice From 12 Autistic Adults

Stories That Need To Be Told

I love listening to stories. The idea for this book came from my passion for storytelling and a special interest in the authority of personal experience. I studied the personal essay in graduate school and have continued using the transformative power of storytelling in a variety of different ways. My interest in autistic storytelling comes from living alongside my autistic brother and son.

When my son was diagnosed with autism at four, my husband and I sought the advice of every “expert” we were recommended to: doctors, therapists, psychologists, etc. But there was one problem with these professionals that left a big gap in our pursuit for the best support for our son–they weren’t autistic. I grew tired of the media stories about what I should or should not be doing as a parent of an autistic child. Avoid milk! Extra doses of vitamins! Try this really expensive supplement! Don’t eat broccoli in your first trimester! So…the broccoli reprimand I haven’t actually heard yet, but you get the idea. When I first started this project, I wanted to find out what autistic people thought of the overwhelming amount of therapy, behavioral, and diet advice out there. I soon realized this is where I should have started.