April is Autism Acceptance Month!
As an autistic person, I admit I have mixed feelings about it. I will always support anyone who wants to learn how to be a better ally to neurodivergent and disabled folks, for sure. But come April, it feels like autistic people get spoken over more than any other time of year, when this is the time we should be listened to most.
For years now, the autistic community has been using Autism Acceptance Month to call for people to move away from the blue puzzle piece, Autism Speaks, and person-first language (eg. Saying ‘person with autism’ instead of ‘autistic person’ - there are plenty of resources online that explain the reasoning behind these requests, if you’re interested in reading further). And while we have come a long way, we still get constant pushback from non-autistic folks, arguing with us as though we don’t have the capacity to know our own minds. Usually, these people have an autistic child or nephew or friend of a friend’s kid.
They mean well, I know, but I cannot tell you how frustrating and hurtful it is to literally be telling someone about your lived experience just to be dismissed like you don’t matter – a message many autistic folks receive over and over again throughout our whole lives.
This is why representation is so important. We need to see ourselves in the stories we consume – in all genres. We need to see ourselves falling in love, fighting for survival in an apocalypse, solving mysteries, and just living normal lives. We need to see ourselves being joyful and funny and sad and messy and right and wrong and everything in between. Everyone deserves that.
Seeing ourselves represented, connecting with a character like that, is life-changing. Honestly, it can be lifesaving. It’s like a lighthouse in a storm, signaling that you’re not alone, you’re not broken, and there’s a community for you out there. There can never be too much representation.
Here are 7 YA books starring autistic characters that I hope give you that spark, that feeling of knowing you’re not alone…
PS. you might recognize the last book *winkwink*
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester
By Maya MacGregor
In this queer contemporary YA mystery, a nonbinary autistic teen realizes they must not only solve a 30-year-old mystery but also face the demons lurking in their past in order to live a satisfying life.
Hell Followed with Us
By Andrew Joseph White
Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him--the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world's population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can't get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.
Afrotistic
By Kala Allen Omeiza
Noa Ohunene Jenkins doesn't feel Black enough. Or autistic enough. Or cool enough. In her new town, the fifteen-year-old strives to make Dean's Merit Society, an elite honor society that she sees as her ticket to success. To make the society, she needs leadership experience, but there's one problem: Noa struggles to socialize appropriately. Desperate to make it in the society, she creates her own group consisting of autistic students from her school district and names it the "Roaring Pebbles".
Social Queue
By Kay Kerr
Zoe Kelly is starting a new phase of her life. High school was a mess of bullying and autistic masking that left her burnt out and shut down. Now, with an internship at an online media company—the first step on the road to her dream writing career—she is ready to reinvent herself. But she didn’t count on returning to her awkward and all-too-recent high-school experiences for her first writing assignment.
Even If We Break
By Marieke Nijkamp
Five friends take a trip to a cabin. It's supposed to be one last getaway before going their separate ways--a chance to say goodbye to each other, and to the game they've been playing for the past three years. But they're all dealing with their own demons, and they're all hiding secrets.
Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl
By Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum
Margo Zimmerman is gay, but she didn't know until now. An overachiever at heart, Margo is determined to ace her newly discovered gayness. All she needs is the right tutor. Abbie Sokoloff has her own gayness down to a science. But a flunking grade in US History is threatening her acceptance to her dream school. All she needs is the right tutor.
This Is The Way The World Ends
By Jen Wilde
As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in--in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school's charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident "it girl" asks Waverly to attend the school's annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance--especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean's daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.
The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. Most importantly, there's Ash. All Waverly wants to do is shed her mask and be with her, but the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school's top donors--and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents' pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. Waverly's fairy tale has turned into a nightmare, and she, Ash, and her friends must navigate through a dizzying maze of freight elevators, secret passageways, and back rooms if they're going to survive the night.
And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?