The Autistic Innovator

Aliyah Naomi from AVIV is a successful costume and clothing designer.

Aliyah provides handmade costumes, apparel, and designs through her business AVIV. She creates some of her products for the disabled and LGBT communities.

Nick from KomarevProjekts turned his special interest in painting miniature models for tabletop war-games into a side business.

He has maintained his day job while also making a side income doing something he enjoys.

I am grateful Judith has shared her knowledge and experience with us. She is a solo entrepreneur (aka sole proprietorship) with a graphic art and design business.

Judith is sharing her expertise with us from South Korea!

You may be at a point in your life where you don’t know what you will do next. Especially when unexpected changes come up, which aren’t always easy to embrace when you’re autistic.

It is important we remember that each goal, no matter how great or seemingly insignificant, takes time and a decision each day to work towards what you want in life.

We can accomplish everything we want as long as we look at our goals as actionable realistic steps.

You may have dreams for your future and things you’d like to accomplish in your life. Knowing how to achieve success can be the hardest part.

Sometimes the secret to success is when passion meets purpose.

Finding the reasons behind our passion can be an important factor in achieving our goals.

You may realize you’ve given too much of your strength to everyone else and have come to where you have forgotten who you are - who you used to be.

Especially if you are an autistic person, you may have spent so much of your life masking that you might not know who you are.

Alexithymia is a series of traits where a person cannot recognize or understand their own emotions. People with alexithymia may have difficulties expressing their emotions.

Our brains will respond to situations and images the same way a person without alexithymia does, we just cannot recognize that it is an emotion, nor describe what the emotion feels like.

You may ask, “how do I create a visual schedule I can stick to?”

We autistic adults can buy a regular paper planner, attempt to use it for a couple of days, and we end up even more overwhelmed because it’s not specific enough to help us manage our lives.

We give up on the planner and try to find a smart phone app, but we still feel our productivity is lacking.

This leads to a cycle of shaming ourselves, because yet again, we didn’t stick to the schedule we created.

You may question whether you are autistic and wonder if autism is the reason you feel so different from everyone else, as if you are from a different planet.

The people we encounter can make it difficult for us to accept who we are, especially if we keep being told who we are is wrong.

I am autistic, same as you, so I know about masking from personal experience.