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1:28pm June 5, 2014
coopahlawkz asked: In all honesty 'autistic celebrity' does not sound like a fun thing to deal with. I mean, kudos for getting your view out there and heard- but just the idea of being focused like that sounds a bit hardcore.

It’s not fun at all.  And it’s not what I wanted.  What happened was years and years and years ago, there weren’t a lot of autistic people saying certain things.  So I started saying them.  And the community was small.  And suddenly people were calling me a leader.  And then my videos started going viral.  And then the news picked me up.  And while I’m not as well known as a lot of autistic people (Temple Grandin, Donna Williams), I’m still sort of a big fish in a small pond.  It’s not what I wanted.  Not what I wanted at all.  But in order to get my message out, I’ve had to accept that people are going to be looking at me.

And I’ve also had to accept that since I fit so very few stereotypes about autism, that people are going to put me into one more more stereotypes.  And then if I don’t meet the stereotype in question, and they find out about this, they’ll think I was being dishonest with them, no matter how hard I try to remind people “I’m not typical for this, I’m not typical for that, please don’t assume this and that.”

So yes it’s a pain in the ass but I get used to it because otherwise I’d be miserable all the time.  And by this point I’ve been through far worse than having some assholes with too much time on their hands messing with my life.  So I try to put it in perspective about what really matters.

I do feel lucky that my fame is the ‘15 minutes’ variety though because I could not handle real fame.  I always wish that people could hear my message without having to be looking so hard at me.  Because my message is what matters to me.  I never tried to be a leader, I never tried to become well-known, both of them just happened, but I’ve been told by people wiser than me that if those things do just happen to you, you have a responsibility to use them well, so I try.  I really try.  I am not always sure how good I do, but I think I do better than I used to when I refused to acknowledge my effect on other people.