OMG! I just found out that Wattpad's official "Social Themes" account posted an autism-related article that I wrote over July Disability Pride Month! ❤ It's titled "Schrödinger's Autistic Person", and I submitted it to "The Unsaid Tales", a magazine that invited disabled writers to share their experiences (in 500 words or fewer) in order to raise awareness, but I wasn't sure it was written well enough for them to accept it, so having it published made my day!
I wrote about how my autism, which is highly visible in real life (this being one of the reasons I was diagnosed in childhood), is met with a completely opposite reaction online. When I'm here, I can tell how much people invalidate autistic folks who, as opposed to me, are able to mask their autism enough for others to accuse them of faking it for attention. People only see the best of us online; the skills we've honed through blood, sweat, and tears, the messages we've proofread ten times before hitting send, and a level of emotional regulation that depends entirely on one's ability to step away from the keyboard in moments of distress.
And that's where my comparison to the famous "Schrödinger's Cat" theory comes in, but I invite you to figure out the connection for yourselves by reading my entry! https://www.wattpad.com/story/413206458-the-unsaid-tales
