Horowhenua StarA brave Levin woman who has learned to live with neurodiversity plans to share her experiences with others as part of autism awareness this month.
Kerrin Maclean, 38, was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome on the autism spectrum at a young age, and more recently with ADHD. Her motivation for holding a workshop is to create a general social awareness about neurodiversity so that life becomes easier for those with “different abilities”.
“It’s not a disability. It’s a different ability,” she says. “This is my hope. To educate people. It’s not doom and gloom. It’s about having people in our corner and supporting us.”
Kerrin Maclean with her cat, Sophia.
Photo Paul Williams
She’s on Facebook, Instagram and has her own YouTube channel and podcast under the alias Aspie Answers, and has also written two e-books.
“The second one [Love, Life, Aspie] is a continuation of my first book. It’s more in-depth as it shares my lived experiences with dating and relationships from an autistic female perspective and it also gives tips and advice,” she says. “Call it like a little life memoir if you will.
“I’m currently working on advocating and navigating through my life with these conditions along with hosts of anxiety, and social anxiety that come in the territory of Aspergers, but my diagnosis is leaning more towards my new diagnosis of ADHD.”
She says her inspiration is to share her experiences as an autistic woman and has listed goals for the books/workshops as:
• being a voice for people on and off the spectrum
• letting others that they’re not alone
• removing the stereotyping and stigma around autism
• removing ableist comments etc
• creating a better understanding and awareness on autism
• to help people with Autism and ADHD to better understand themselves
• help medical professionals learn to spot the signs of autism and ADHD as early as possible.
“What’s next for me is that I am hoping to still do what I can to be the voice for autistics and also have a few projects in the works as I write this, yet need as much funding and support to continue to do what I love.
“I hope this workshop will spark more interest in the community as we badly need to educate one another about autism or anything that we are passionate about due to what and how the media is portraying it. It’s not always accurate.”
She says wearing a “mask” can be exhausting and trying to please everyone for fear of being judged for “X,Y,Z” was tiring, which made education and shared knowledge so important.
The workshop is at Tetaketretanga o Kura-hau-pō at 10am, Saturday, April 12.
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