Inactive

your heavy heart

cover for a new zine that i’ll be selling at L.A. zine fest this sunday 🌹✨

posting more zine images and process notes to my patreon later tonight

Shoreless.

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‘NO GENDER, NO BEAUTY, NO SEASONS’

It seems that most of the argument on curing autism and other disabilities is that people “don’t want anyone to suffer it”

But here’s the thing about autism. We’re born autistic. We don’t know anything else. And as long as I have access to my coping methods, I’m totally fine.

I’ve been autistic my entire life. I didn’t know it until a couple years ago, but I’ve been finding my own ways to deal with sensory issues since I was born. It’s not really a problem to me. I have soundproof earbuds to block out extra noise. I have a necklace full of perfume in case of a bad smell, stim toys in case I get anxious. I know ASL in case I have a nonverbal shutdown. I know how and where to seek out accommodations for myself if I need them. My autism-related problems are hardly problems at all. They’re just life for me.

So here are the reasons I suffer due to my autism:

when I get overwhelmed but can’t leave the room because people accuse me of being rude

when I can’t plug my ears if there’s a sound I can’t deal with because people accuse me of being rude

when I get ridiculed for stimming in public

when I get ridiculed for whatever my special interest is

when people force me to eat food I can’t eat

when people force me to use spoken English when I’ve gone nonverbal

when people talk down to me because I’m autistic

when people try to force me to do things that my brain can’t handle under the assumption that I can do it if I believe in myself

Notice what all those things have in common? They’re all problems caused by people who don’t try to understand that our brains are different.

We don’t suffer because of our autism. We suffer because of YOU.