Autistic Hedgehog
RSSPosts tagged with "America's Next Top Model"
True story: a few years back, there was a contestant on America's Next Top Model who has AS. For about four months, friends and relatives came up to me and said "you remind me of that chick from Top Model". This was when I was 13 and hated myself and didn't want to be compared to some chick from Top Model.
I actually watched that season, and I did like Heather (the model in question).
But that sort of situation is always such a double-edged sword for us. It would be nice if allistics saw that and took from it that autistic people are people, we’re all different, we have different strengths and weaknesses, different goals and dreams.
Instead the majority of them seem to have one of two reactions. Either they do what your friends and relatives did, because for some reason they have to compare autistic people to other autistics like Rain Man (who was based on an actual autistic) or Temple Grandin or Heather herself.
Or they’re all “She can do that, why can’t you?”
It’s great when autistic people make inroads in careers that aren’t the acceptable, stereotyped ones, but that sort of reaction to it really bites.
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