It throws the doors open and sheds some light on Fern’s lived experiences. This is just one person’s account, and it possibly throws up more questions than answers. Her straight-talking is funny but eye-opening, intriguing but shocking. Chloe’s memoir is more like a self-help book, whereas Fern’s takes us through her chaotic life as a way to boost awareness of what it’s been like to be autistic. It’s the second such book I have read this year, having equally enjoyed Chloe Hayden’s Different Not Less. She didn’t want to be the person in the public eye to explain meltdowns where she smashes up furniture, but no one else stepped up. She has had to write a book to explain her meltdowns and what causes them. There’s no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing.”įern has had to write a book to tell her peers, the TV industry and her fans that she is autistic.

What being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except Laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that’s “If you’ve ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have

She suffers abuse in a toxic relationship. She is kicked out of home, hates school and, whilst at university, finds freedom in strip clubs where she can be herself as she works. She has written an open and honest memoir about growing up and not knowing she is autistic but knowing she is very different from others. I'd wear a costume that made me look like an alien, a secret wink to any ND folk watching.It’s my stop on the blog tour for Strong Female Character by comedian Fern Brady, known for her recent Taskmaster appearance and no-nonsense Scottish humour. I figured instead of trying to blend in & failing as usual, I'd try being the MOST myself. 'I knew a big part of doing well on Taskmaster was being yourself but if you're autistic you're so frequently punished for being yourself that it was a scary move. Even when people don’t know what autism 'looks' like, their lizard brains recognise something different about us and they use that as an excuse to exclude us. “I'd noticed that, no matter how much weight I lost or nice clothes I wore on TV, I could still spot my autism and failed attempts to mask it onscreen. 'I realised that by being my unmasked self while having fun I’d reach them way better than by doing some serious on-the-nose documentary about how shit my life had been when I was undiagnosed (I mean it WAS, but there are so few media images of happy autistics and I want newly-diagnosed people to feel some optimism moving forward),' she continued.

'But when I was lurking on the TM subreddit before this series went out, it was pretty apparent how many autistic people watched the show.

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady