REMINDERS ON WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY!:
Category: Resources
Current mood:  validated

• autism speaks it a hate group that has systematically silenced the voices of autistic people for decades. they fearmonger towards uneducated parents with autistic children.
• The "light it up blue" campaign was created by them. don't use it!
• while the puzzle piece was NOT created by autism speaks, it was popularized by them. it was MEANT to mean "i am unique and i fit into the greater puzzle of life" but a lot of autistic people see it to mean "i am afflicted by a puzzling condition and have no hope of fitting in"
• a lot of autistic adults also see it as very childish. autistic adults deal with a lot of infantilization due to the autism awareness movement mainly focusing on young autistic children.
• autism is a SPECTRUM. it has never been a rigidly defined disorder! although in certain circumstances i am fairly neurotypical-passing, I AM VERY MUCH AUTISTIC! 
• autism appears very different in girls than boys! autism in girls is heavily overlooked & under-diagnosed
• if you want to show good allyship for autistic friends/family/etc, use the neurodivergency symbol! many people already use it as such because it's an ACTUAL symbol of hope. not a hatespeech symbol hiding behind a false pretense of hope! people do have their own problems with the neurodivergency symbol, but it's currently a lot better than the puzzle piece or "light it up blue"