Exploring Autism Spectrum Disorder from an older female standpoint:

Finally, a community of like-minded females who get it!

Starting with Jeannie Davide-Rivera ((17) Author Jeannie Davide-Rivera | Facebook), I found at least four (4) Autism and Asperger’s Blogs for Women.

In Musings of an Aspie (http://musingsofan aspie.com), Cynthia Kim wrote this wonderful insight in 2014. I could not describe this feeling any more eloquently! ‘Coming to understand that autistic girls and women have somewhat different traits than autistic boys and men made it clear, finally, that there was a place on the spectrum for me. Not only that, there were other women like me, other women who shared similar traits and experiences. I’d spent decades feeling like I was an anomaly and suddenly here was a community of people who understood. As I’ve read the experiences of other autistic women, I’ve come to realize why autism is described as a spectrum condition. As autistic people, we share much in common but we are also different in many ways. No one is autistic in exactly the same way that I am. This has given me permission to be me-to see myself on the broad spectrums of womanhood and humanity-and to embrace myself as I am. [….] for now, I am a work in progress. Each time I think “yes, this is it, I’ve got it now”, I soon find myself unpeeling a new layer, discovering some aspect of myself I’d tucked safely away.’

Thank you, Cynthia Kim, this is a gift beyond compare! Cynthia also wrote a heartfelt response titled “I Don’t Need Your Awareness”: this is an angry response to some well-wishing effort to understand autism by some content creator. The resulting 2-minute video reportedly intended to inspire positive change through a deeper tolerance and understanding about autism. She was upset because the creators are non-autistic and do not really know the experience of a non-verbal autistic child, whether one thinks in pictures or not. “Imagine living a life where the world you perceive and experience around you is entirely different than that of your peers, and your family — where you feel…misunderstood. […] I don’t need awareness and I don’t need to be tolerated. I need acceptance and I need for the voices of autistic people to be the ones speaking about autism. Listen”?

Asperger’s Diary: Life Through the Lens of Asperger’s, by Lynne Soraya. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/aspergers-diary in 2014–2018; then www.lynnesoraya.com in 2018 or Facebook till now). She lists Spanish, German and Japanese languages on her Facebook profile. She wrote the book for young autistic adults: “Living Independently on the Autism Spectrum”.

Checking out her latest FB posts, she seems mostly into social activism on behalf of disabilities, racism, minority groups. I get the feeling she is spread thin.

The Inner Aspie (https://inneraspie.blogspot.com/). Twenty years ago, she blogged about mothering her autistic children. Ten years ago, she blogged about her own autism journey. Lately, she admits exploring Introversion.

Asperger’s and Me. This woman started her journey when her son was diagnosed with autism and then she was diagnosed with ASD in 2015. She began her blog “Asperger’s and Me” (https://aspergersandmeblog.wordpress.com) in 2011. She got her psychology degree in 2019.
She finally found a framework to explain herself, wow! What an enlightening step forward!

In her blog, “Lost and Found Girls” (https://lostandfoundgirls.wordpress.com), this mother writes:

“One of the greatest things I’ve learned throughout my life is that knowledge is power, and that understanding, knowing as much as I can about something, makes me less anxious and depressed. Knowing why we’re different would, I think, have made a big difference. As more and more people are successfully diagnosed it’s becoming clear that autism is not as rare (or gender specific) as previous generations have thought.”

S. Renee Salas in her book “Black and White: A Colorful Look at Life on the Autism Spectrum” (2012)” is an articulate and eloquent adult woman who shares her insights growing up, her marriage and her three children, two of whom have autism. Renée Salas is a writer, blogger, public speaker and disability rights activist. Her blog’s main focus is neurodiversity with an emphasis on autism.

Website http://srsalas.com; Twitter: @srsalas13; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renee.salas.184

A Quiet Week is a blog by Lori D., an adult autistic woman with Tourette’s Syndrome, whose father is autistic and who has a teenage autistic son. She is very private but has a lovely description of her parents, her husband and her son https://aquietweek.com/my-family/.

She writes about her inner feelings negotiating her life. https://aquietweek.com/test-page/. She has very interesting digital art posts: each post is illustrated with a symbolic visual picture which is intricately expressive! How does she do that?

And in the past few years, many more websites like the Art of Autism (https://the-art-of-autism.com/category/about-the-art-of-autism) which funnels all forms of creativity and allows posts by various bloggers.