Maisie Soetantyo is the founder of a nonprofit with a mission to improve employment prospects for autistic jobseekers and aspiring business owners. Now an openly autistic advocate and inclusivity trainer, she has been working with neurodivergent people since her undergraduate studies in 1991, but it would be many years before some of her clients started suggesting that she might be autistic, too. A former Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) practitioner, she moved away from ABA after realising that supporting her client's authenticity as autistic individuals should be the goal. She set up Autis ..read more

Laura Richmond is a writer and researcher from Southampton in the UK. Now 35, she was diagnosed autistic last year. She had an extremely difficult road to diagnosis. Social and emotional struggles in childhood led to her being in and out of the psychiatric system for 15 years, misdiagnosed and spending time in various psychiatric hospitals.  The turning point came when her son was born: after a traumatic birth she developed PTSD and spent time in a psychiatric mother and baby unit. Her positive experience there, so unlike her previous time in hospital, led her to begin writing about her e ..read more

Rosie Smith is the owner of a non-profit radical bookshop in Canton in Cardiff, just a couple of miles from where I live.  Now 32, she grew up just outside Cardiff with her mum and sister. Leaving school at 16 due to anxiety, eating disorders and mental health issues, she found her people in music, joining bands and doing various different jobs until she decided to open the bookshop in 2019, after quitting her 27th job. Rosie’s wonderful shop, Shelf Life, works with independent publishers to stock a range of fiction and nonfiction books centering neurodiversity, disability and mental heal ..read more

Kay Louise Aldred is a writer, facilitator, teacher, mentor, and resource creator from North Yorkshire in the UK. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic quite recently, last November. A former teacher, just like me she suffered burnout, left her career and became self employed before discovering her autism. Now she and her husband are co-authoring a book, Embodied Structure: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing, which will be available late autumn 2023. She has worked with children and adults in educational, retreat and wellness settings throughout her career, has taught 11-1 ..read more

Rosie Weldon is a Senior Financial Analyst and author whose memoir, ‘My Autistic Fight Song’, tells the story of how she fought to get her accountancy degree and find her place in the world of work, despite her struggles with mental and physical health and the challenges that come with being autistic. Now 31, she was diagnosed aged 25. Since graduating from Chester University - where she received some incredibly supportive accommodations - she became an account, finding her first job with Bank of America. But she found herself having to make the decision to leave after developing a neurologica ..read more

Martine van Bijlert is a writer and researcher from the Netherlands. Now 52, she grew up in Iran and worked in places like Kabul, Grozny and Tehran as an aid worker, diplomat and researcher. She now divides her time between her own creative projects and her work for the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based think tank she founded with friends.  She is self-identified autistic and ADHD, and says she feels like she has always been surrounded by neurodivergent people, as a child, during her studies and in her work abroad, and perhaps because of that she thought things were easier for h ..read more

Naomi Clarke is a freelance writer, community mentor, fundraiser and Human Design reader.  She self diagnosed as autistic around two years ago, but due to inequality in the medical system has so far not been able to get a formal diagnosis.  She describes herself as an autistic, queer, mixed race person with two children (one of her sons was diagnosed autistic 5 years ago). She wears a lot of hats in her life; she writes for work and for personal interest, and is passionate about building lives outside of the system of mainstream schooling. Until very recently she was running a self d ..read more

Ebonie Allard is an award-winning International Master Coach, an author, and an artist. Now in her early 40s, she was mostly raised in the UK, but before she was seven years old she had lived in a house truck, on a commune, in France, New Zealand, Ireland, and England. She now lives in Spain. She says that she has never had a 'proper job' - she’s been self-employed, a freelancer, a business owner and an entrepreneur all her life. Ebonie was diagnosed autistic fairly recently, but has always drawn neurodivergent people to her, and her work helps other neurodivergent, creative and spiritual huma ..read more

Karawynn Long is an American writer and proofreader living in Mexico. Now 52, she had what she describes as her ‘Autism epiphany’ just over three years ago, a few months before her fiftieth birthday. She is self identified as autistic, partly due to formal assessments not being available in the Mexican system, and difficult and expensive to obtain in the American one. Karawynn moved to Mexico almost 10 years ago for economic reasons, and unlike many autistic people who find living in other cultures freeing and less fraught with social expectations, she has found many aspects of life there a ch ..read more

Mandy Williams is a Volunteer Coordinator with Scottish Women’s Autism and a competitive athlete. Originally from Manchester in the UK, she now lives in Stirling in Scotland. She was diagnosed autistic two years ago, aged 45. She is passionate about exercise, and her enthusiasm for this special interest shines out. She has achieved a bronze medal in mountain running, and recently qualified for the World Championship Hyrox event, a global fitness race. I’m delighted to share my conversation with. I loved this conversation so much - Mandy has such good energy and she was a joy to chat with.  ..read more