Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

Happy 10th Anniversary!

This anniversary is not only ours, it is YOURS too. Because YOU are what makes this blog and this community possible!

To celebrate, take a trip with us down memory lane and check out our anniversary zine, filled with messages from other members of this community:

➜ Download the zine (pdf).

If you want to print a copy of the zine, download this file and print on both sides of a page before folding into a booklet.

We're also very happy to debut our new logo!

Isn't it amazing? Keep an eye out for the new Aro Movies Monday and Aro Tunes Thursday redesigns as well. This new visual identity was commissioned to @marirumo, a designer we've already collaborated with on previous projects; we're very grateful for her constant support!

Today’s the day! ‘The Other A in LGBTQIA+’ by AUREA is officially out today! Dive into the powerful, personal stories of the aromantic community—our voices, our experiences, our truth. Read more about it here: https://www.aromanticism.org/en/news-feed/our-book-the-other-a-in-lgbtqia-coming-out-now. Grab your copy now and help us celebrate this milestone for aromantic visibility!

We'd like to celebrate the diversity of aromantic orientations, from no romantic attraction to nonnormative romantic attraction or experiences with romance, by sharing a different microlabel each day this week. Do you use microlabels? Which do you think we should feature this week?

Happy Aromantic Spectrum Visibility Day! You can learn more about the aromantic spectrum at the ASVD website.

Arospec 🔀: Nakarai + Bellusromantic

Here’s recommendation 6 of 8! #Aromantic participants from PRIDEnet’s community listening sessions in collaboration with ThePRIDEStudy shared their thoughts around representation of the #aromantic community in health research. #ASAW2025

Read more at pridenet.org/reports

[Image Description:

Image 1: A square graphic that reads “Recommendation 6: To ensure better representation of the aromantic community in health research, include aromantic community members from the beginning (e.g., study design) and engage them throughout, including sharing of results. Familiarize yourself with the terms used and discourse happening within the community.” The text is in a box bordered in green. Next the text is clipart of a doctor holding a clipboard with a thought bubble. Inside the thought bubble is the aromantic flag. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Based on responses from aromantic participants” with a green arrow pointing to the right.

Image 2: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “I think one of the big benefits is also tied to one of my concerns, but I've participated in this aro [aromantic] and ace [asexual] research at an academic level for a long time. Like at least five years that I've been doing these studies, and the majority of them, I never see the results. I never see what comes out of them. I never see what actually could help my community.  As a leader within my community and my section of the aroace [aromantic and asexual] community, [ ... ] it's just not - like, I just don't ever get to know what happened with that data.”   At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Image 3: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “... having that active social media connection that you're forming relationships with these people that you're studying, you know their terms, you know their concerns, and that they can also benefit from your work as well.” Next to the quote is a clip art of social media posts with the aromantic flag.  Under the quote is a black text box that reads: “Read more recommendations from aromantic participants at: PRIDEnet.org/reports.”  At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awarness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

here is my 2023 aro week art! f2u as long as you include image description/alt text ^^

Explore recommendation 5 of 8 from PRIDEnet's community listening sessions in collaboration with ThePRIDEStudy! Aromanticism is not an issue to be fixed. Let’s affirm their experiences without pathologizing aromanticism. #ASAW2025

Read more at pridenet.org/reports

[Image Description:

Image 1: A square graphic that reads “Recommendation 5: Allow aromantic people to be seen as whole and complex and not as having an issue that needs to be fixed. Do not pathologize aromanticism. Understand that the layered identities and experiences of aromantic people may at times be related, but do not have causality relationships.” The text is in a box bordered in green. Next the text is clip art of a group of diverse people.  At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Based on responses from aromantic participants” with a green arrow pointing to the right.

Image 2: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “I'm very open about being disabled, and I have other conditions that cause me to lose consciousness. And my mental health was brought in, and my choice of how I partner was brought in to an assessment of my disabilities and of my chronic conditions because it was unfathomable that maybe these things were entirely separate. Because in the minds of the doctors, they'd stated things like, 'Well, maybe you don't like partnering because you have all of these chronic illnesses and they're all related, and you don't actually have your identity.' Rather, you're just ill and that makes it too hard for you to be partnering. Which personally doesn't apply to me, and it's incredibly difficult.”  At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report. 2024 January.

Image 3: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “I think, as a start, one of the main things is for people to actually know what aromanticism is because I feel like that's still a lot outside of the queer community. It's not well known or not known in the sense that we want to be known. As people kind of think of it as a problem or something to be fixed a lot of times, which can kind of lead to, you know, like, oh, you know, you have to go to therapy and fix this issue because you don't experience romantic love, that sort of thing.”  At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Image 4: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “ ... understanding that this is a real orientation and something that is not a problem to be solved, I think that's the main first step because that's still a big problem.”  Under the quote is a black text box that reads: “Read more recommendations from aromantic participants at: PRIDEnet.org/reports.”  At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PrideNet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

You are still part of this community no matter how “invisible” you might be in the spectrum!

It's Aro Week, so here are a few of my favourites!

List:

Check out recommendation 4 of 8 from PRIDEnet’s community listening sessions in collaboration with ThePRIDEStudy! See the diversity of thoughts and experiences of the #aromantic community around romantic attraction and partnership. #ASAW2025

Read more at pridenet.org/reports

[Image Description: 

Image 1: A square graphic that reads “Recommendation 4: Acknowledge the diversity in individual attitudes towards romantic attraction and partnership within the aromantic community with an increased awareness of the disparities that some individuals face associated with romantic attraction and/or partnering. Some aromantic people are in partnering relationships while others are not, which can have economic, medical and legal implications."The text is in a box bordered in green. Below the text are cliparts of, from left to right: a stack Yen bills, a medical report and a courtroom gavel. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Based on responses from aromantic participants” with a green arrow pointing to the right.

Image 2: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “...just the assumption that like, oh, of course you want this [romance] because it's totally normal to want this. Everyone wants this. And, yeah, it's awkward when you don't want that... I have the same thing in a very different problem in that I am an incredibly tactile person. I love nothing more than to cuddle and snuggle with people, and people see that and they're like, oh, well, I don't get it. You clearly like this person cause you're, like, sitting in their lap. And it's like, no, I just like hugs. So it's sort of the same idea of like, well, you did this in the past, so that doesn't make sense that you're aro [aromantic].” To the right of the text is a clipart of two blob-figures hugging. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Image 3: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “I feel like I am a queer person. I belong in queer spaces, but I am also sort of romance-repulsed, sort of sex-repulsed, and a lot of queer folks who are not aro [aromantic] or not ace [asexual], that's their safe space to be very, very open about their sexuality or their romantic attraction, and they deserve that space to be able to do that. So it's, yeah, it's hard to find sort of like what is that balance[...].” At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Image 4: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “Another thing that I would say is just the way that health insurance works in this country and how if you're going to get health insurance for a partner's employer, they'll typically want you to be married. I feel like the expansion of who we're able to include, like if we're under the system where we have to get healthcare through our employers, we should be able to elect people outside of our immediate family.” Under the quote is a black text box that reads: “Read more recommendations from aromantic participants at: PRIDEnet.org/reports.” To the right of this text is a clipart of a clipboard with a health insurance application. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Top:

Taller person on the left: Don't you ever get sad that you'll never find true love?

Shorter person wearing aro flag on the right: What d'you mean?

Bottom:

Here’s part 3 of 8 from PRIDEnet’s community listening sessions in collaboration with ThePRIDEStudy: Do not conflate asexual orientation/identity with #aromantic orientation/identity. Check out these community quotes! #ASAW2025

Read more at pridenet.org/reports

[Image Description:

Image 1: A square graphic that reads “Recommendation 3: Do not conflate asexual orientation/identity with aromantic orientation/identity. In the care environment, this does not mean you should always address them separately. Since some people split their sexual and romantic attractions while others do not, people should be given the option to have them addressed separately or together.” The text is in a box bordered in green. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Based on responses from aromantic participants” with a green arrow pointing to the right.

Image 2: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “I'm aro allo [aromantic and allosexual*] and often get mistaken for aroace [aromantic and asexual*], even by health professionals, which sometimes means they don't think of certain sexual health needs I might have.” Under the quote are two text boxes with definitions. The first text box is green and reads: “*Allosexual (allo): Describes a person who experiences sexual attraction or is not on the asexual spectrum.” The second text box is grey and reads: “*Asexual (ace): Commonly describes someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction, abbreviated to ace.” At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.

Image 3: A square graphic featuring a quote from a community listening session participant. It reads “Honestly, the thing that I find most troublesome is when people, especially outside the community, but I've seen it from people in the community as well, assume that all aros* are like a subset of asexuality. And I have absolutely no beef with aroaces *. [ ... ] Trying to find any kind of representation, any kind of discussion around aromanticism that doesn't center asexuality in the broader society can be a little bit difficult.”  Under the quote is a text box with definitions that reads “aros: aromantic people. aroaces: people who are both aromantic and asexual.” The word “aros” is highlighted in green. The word “aroaces” is highlighted in grey. At the top of the graphic are the words “Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, #ASAW2025”. At the bottom of the graphic is a text box with the PRIDEnet and AUREA logos. The logos are connected by the words “In collaboration with”. Next to this is another text box that reads “Stanford University School of Medicine and PRIDEnet. Community Listening Sessions with Aromantic People: Summary and Recommendation Report 2024 January.