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Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams
Releasing on 3.29.22
What happens to autistic children when they become autistic adults?
While the popular image of autism is with children, Autistics on Autism, a tell-all compiled of 100 adult autistic voices, will help you understand autism from the point of view of the next generation of leaders within our autism community.
Autistics on Autism will share with you topics about receiving the diagnosis, early intervention, overcoming obstacles, disclosure, acceptance, and what helped them succeed both in K-12 and college with a learning disability.
The book's editor, Dr. Kerry Magro Ed., is an award-winning professional speaker, author, autism entertainment consultant and autistic self-advocate. Dr. Magro shares his journey from a nonspeaking child to getting accepted and succeeding in college and now as a professional speaker. Dr. Magro is also the founder of KFM Making a Difference. This nonprofit organization's mission is to provide autistic individuals on the spectrum and their families support and encouragement by increasing awareness of disabled persons' abilities, encouraged through scholarships, training, and education at all levels, and finding affordable housing for them in a safe and supported environment.
More than 100 autistic students have received partial college scholarships. Many of the stories you read from this book are from the nonprofit's Making a Difference a Difference for Autism Scholarship applicants.
When you purchase this book, all proceeds will go back to this nonprofit to hopefully fund initiatives like this scholarship program for years to come.
We invite you to enjoy their stories.
What happens to autistic children when they become autistic adults?
While the popular image of autism is with children, Autistics on Autism, a tell-all compiled of 100 adult autistic voices, will help you understand autism from the point of view of the next generation of leaders within our autism community.
Autistics on Autism will share with you topics about receiving the diagnosis, early intervention, overcoming obstacles, disclosure, acceptance, and what helped them succeed both in K-12 and college with a learning disability.
The book's editor, Dr. Kerry Magro Ed., is an award-winning professional speaker, author, autism entertainment consultant and autistic self-advocate. Dr. Magro shares his journey from a nonspeaking child to getting accepted and succeeding in college and now as a professional speaker. Dr. Magro is also the founder of KFM Making a Difference. This nonprofit organization's mission is to provide autistic individuals on the spectrum and their families support and encouragement by increasing awareness of disabled persons' abilities, encouraged through scholarships, training, and education at all levels, and finding affordable housing for them in a safe and supported environment.
More than 100 autistic students have received partial college scholarships. Many of the stories you read from this book are from the nonprofit's Making a Difference a Difference for Autism Scholarship applicants.
When you purchase this book, all proceeds will go back to this nonprofit to hopefully fund initiatives like this scholarship program for years to come.
We invite you to enjoy their stories.
442 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 19, 2022
30 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 10, 2022
I was really looking forward to reading this book. I was very disappointed by both the overall tone and writing quality.
This is a collection of personal essays by (mostly) autistic teens applying for a scholarship from the editor's scholarship program, so nearly all entries followed the formula of "people thought I was different, I was diagnosed, I worked hard, and now I am going to college." It became really repetitive. Additionally, because the essays were written by people seeking a scholarship, this book puts a ton of emphasis on going to college as the only path to Success™️.
There are a lot of typos, but nearly all were minor (still able to understand the writer's intent). There was a lack of diversity (race, age, age of diagnosis, etc.) among the authors. Nearly every essay uses person first language ("person with autism") vs. identity first language ("autistic," "autistic person"). Identity first is often preferred by adult autistic self advocates.
There is also lots of talk of "overcoming autism" and use of the term @spergers and various functioning labels. There are a lot of mentions of Temple Grandin as a positive figure (she perpetuates several outdated and incorrect ideas like functioning labels and autistics should try to act "less autistic" among other concerns).
After seeing some positive references to the highly problematic organization Auti$m $peak$ (AS) in the book, I looked up the editor and saw he has blogged for AS. He also has a book called "I Will Light It Up Blue!" which is an AS campaign. I wish I had known of this editor's connection with AS before purchasing his book. AS has advocated for a "cure" for the "disease" of autism. They only have one autistic person on their board (of 26).
Overall, as much as I wanted to recommend this book, I cannot.
This is a collection of personal essays by (mostly) autistic teens applying for a scholarship from the editor's scholarship program, so nearly all entries followed the formula of "people thought I was different, I was diagnosed, I worked hard, and now I am going to college." It became really repetitive. Additionally, because the essays were written by people seeking a scholarship, this book puts a ton of emphasis on going to college as the only path to Success™️.
There are a lot of typos, but nearly all were minor (still able to understand the writer's intent). There was a lack of diversity (race, age, age of diagnosis, etc.) among the authors. Nearly every essay uses person first language ("person with autism") vs. identity first language ("autistic," "autistic person"). Identity first is often preferred by adult autistic self advocates.
There is also lots of talk of "overcoming autism" and use of the term @spergers and various functioning labels. There are a lot of mentions of Temple Grandin as a positive figure (she perpetuates several outdated and incorrect ideas like functioning labels and autistics should try to act "less autistic" among other concerns).
After seeing some positive references to the highly problematic organization Auti$m $peak$ (AS) in the book, I looked up the editor and saw he has blogged for AS. He also has a book called "I Will Light It Up Blue!" which is an AS campaign. I wish I had known of this editor's connection with AS before purchasing his book. AS has advocated for a "cure" for the "disease" of autism. They only have one autistic person on their board (of 26).
Overall, as much as I wanted to recommend this book, I cannot.
June 3, 2022
Not exactly what I was expecting by the title but the concept is novel and deserves much accolades. My opinion is that some editing on a subsequent edition or even a new sequel could really make this shine. Would love to see inclusion of all levels of autistic kids and people even those who did not pursue college.
June 5, 2022
Thank you for highlighting the good and not so good of growing up when someone has autism. Great job Kerry!
May 5, 2022
This book is incredibly helpful to me as a mom with a young son on the spectrum. It's true that parents of children on the spectrum receive an abundance of advice about therapies, treatments, etc., but we don't hear enough from the source: people with autism. This gave me great insight into the way people with autism feel about the way neurotypicals approach them, and how NTs can better serve them. I really want to do right by my son and every other person on the spectrum I encounter following the reading of this book, which was a long time coming. I look forward to reading Kerry's other works.
March 30, 2022
The entire book is composed of essays by autistic people: their hopes, dreams, struggles, thoughts, all in their own words. It’s enlightening and inspiring and worthy reading.
August 2, 2025
I didn't really like this book...as an AuDHD person, I thought there was too much Autism Speaks support, ABA therapy and Temple Grandin as hero mentions. (All problematic.) This may be good for high schoolers and middle schoolers with ASD to read if they plan or hope to go to college or uni, still, I'd be wary because of all the problematic things I mentioned. But not really for someone who's 45, self-diagnosed and non-binary, who will likely not get any supports that I need if/when I go back to school due to being self-diagnosed. That being said, there were a handful of essays I enjoyed reading.
May 20, 2025
I read this for a college class, and I do not think it was the book for me. As an early childhood educator, I don't think I was the target audience.
I think someone with autism who is transitioning into early adulthood or someone supporting an individual in that situation would gain a lot more from this book.
Also, kinda nitpicky, but there are a TON of spelling and grammatical errors throughout this book.
I think someone with autism who is transitioning into early adulthood or someone supporting an individual in that situation would gain a lot more from this book.
Also, kinda nitpicky, but there are a TON of spelling and grammatical errors throughout this book.
April 25, 2025
I am one of the individuals who has an essay in the book. If you want to hear about Autism from people who live with it every day, this is a great resource!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews