Thread by @autisticats

I don’t have a long written thread for you today, just some childhood photos for #TheFaceOfAnAutisticChild tag.

Here’s me with some dandelions when I was about one year old.

I often didn’t smile in photos, even when people were smiling at me, which I now know is an autistic trait.

But that doesn’t mean I never smiled- it just means I smiled when I wanted to, on my own terms.

The whole “not smiling for photos when I don’t feel like it” thing carried into the later part of my childhood, too.

And so did smiling on my own terms.

Here’s me at around 4 years old, with a pacifier in my mouth. It took me a very long time (until I was almost 5) to stop using it. Now I know it was a stim.

Most of you have probably seen these photos before, but in case you haven’t: here’s me plugging my ears at a train station, and me flapping my hand.

Now, here are some recent photos from my life. I’m currently 19 years old, so I’m not quite an adult yet.

This is me & Abby :)

Lastly, here are some ridiculous photos Abby took of me the other day while we were walking across campus. Someone wrote “Pillar” on a pillar.