How To Be Autistic charts Charlotte Amelia Poe's journey through
schooldays and young adulthood, with chapters on food, fandom,
depression, body piercing, comic conventions, and technology. Poe writes
about her memoir: 'The best way to describe it is to imagine a road
trip. If a neurotypical person wants to get from A to B, then they will
most often find their way unobstructed, without road works or
diversions. For an autistic person, they will find that they are having
to use back roads and cut across fields and explore places neurotypicals
would never even imagine visiting'. How To Be Autistic challenges
narratives of autism as something to be 'fixed', as Poe believes her
autism is a fundamental aspect of her work. She writes: 'I wanted to
show the side of autism that I have lived through, the side you don't
find in books and on Facebook groups. My piece is a story about
survival, fear and, finally, hope. It is an open letter to every
autistic person who has suffered the verbal, mental or physical abuse
and come out snarling and alive. 'If I can change just one person's
perceptions, if I can help one person with autism feel like they're less
alone, then this will all be worth it. So please, turn the page. Our
worlds are about to collide.'
