If you’ve met one autistic person… you’ve met one autistic person.
There are as many ways to be autistic as there are autistic people. In this, our second Asking Autistics event with Library For the Kind, we’re introducing you to two more autistic people.
Dani and Margaux are two amazing openly autistic folks and bloggers.
We are working to use this ongoing series as a way to showcase the diversity of the autistic experience and help replace stereotypes with authentic and diverse representation.
If you’re interested in joining us please contact us and a member of the Solidarity Team will get back to you as soon as possible! We need more autistic voices and are looking forward to learning more about the ways different people experience autism!
Did you miss the livestream? You can catch the video on our YouTube Channel!
Margaux (they/them)
Also Known As Retrophiliac
Margaux Wosk is an Autistic advocate, activist and member of BC People First.
They are passionate about disability rights and fight for greater supports for disabled self-employed individuals. Margaux runs their own shop specializing in eye-catching merchandise, including neurodiversity pride items.
They also run the Made by Autistic Community and Marketplace group on on Facebook (a group with nearly 6k members), an active Etsy shop (which we recommend supporting!), and also run and manage their blog at www.navigatingjourney.com.
What Does Allistic Mean?
Allistic is a neutral term that simply means non-autistic.
This term includes all neurotypical (NT) people but is distinct from NT because, while all autistic people are neuro divergent (ND) not all ND people people are autistic.
Dani (they/them)
Primarily known as The Punk Rock Autistic
The Punk Rock Autistic is a blog and consulting platform for neurodiversity and queer advocacy, ran by Dani. Dani is autistic, non-binary, and asexual. They have been working with the disabled population for over a decade as a mental health/social work and care professional.
Self-advocacy and intersectionality is what their platform is based on, and through that they hope to share the experience of what it means to be autistic and queer. Their blog platform serves as a blog that documents and shares the autistic perspective in an avenue of activism, self-advocacy, as well as autobiographical through the lens of the social model of disability. They offer first hand experience of being autistic and queer.
They are working on extending this reach further, including offering personal consulting, disability education, and assisting families, schools, teachers, and organizations create neuro-divergent friendly spaces and provide insight and education for these environments and care providers.
Kate Reynolds (she/they)
Also known as The Lavender Librarian
Kate is a children’s librarian, writer, and singer. In July 2021, after her favourite Facebook Group, Storytime Underground, decided to archive Kate created Storytime Solidarity, a group devoted to supporting and connecting children’s library and education workers to help welcome every family. In November 2021, along with an amazing team, they launched storytimesolidarity.com
She encourages anyone who thinks they may be autistic to have hope. Your life is about to start! Her life began when she had her autipiphany and learned she was autistic at 35!
Stefanie Gangone (she/her)
Our first Asking Autistics event was held in April 2022 with the goal was to help add accurate representation to the “awareness” campaigns that are often rife with misinformation.
For me, this lack of representation was why I didn’t find myself until 35. In 2020! It took a global pandemic — and a full mental breakdown — for me to learn I was autistic. I’d lived through 35 Aprils, I’d read about autism, I’d even watched some autistic speakers.
But no one told me what I needed to hear: that it’s easy to miss autism. And that’s it’s possible to be be autistic and have no idea. For me, life began with diagnosis and I would never have been able to do the work that I’m doing here at Storytime Solidarity without understanding my own mind.
-Kate
