Young Writers Society

Should Willow be 'on the spectrum' as in, should she be on the autism spectrum in addition to having a visual impairement (Retinitis pigmentosa)?

Read this only if you know about my story.

I keep imaging her with having autistic symptoms, also, she's obsessed with learning about cells, microscopic animals/wanting to use the PREFORM device and to become a veternarian. Willow is meek and kind. She loves science and animals/comic books....anddd she knows how to make pepper spray for self defence if she needs to. She's terrified that people will hurt her/or could if they wanted to, because she's disabled.

Sooo....I know that many books feature autistic characters....but I was wondering...

Do many books have famale autistic characters?

In general, is autism protrayed in a possitive way ( as in aspects of their condition helping them) or negitive?

It is protrayed in a medicaly accurit way?

Thank you. Like I said, this is idea. I'm on the fence about it.

Short answer: I'm voting against it.

Slightly less short answer: Autism isn't just a label you can put on a character, and it requires a lot of care and research if you want to present it in a respectful, accurate way. There's much more to it than what you've listed, and it's not as easy to portray as it may seem on first glance.

Here's why I vote no on the idea: I applaud your dedication to characters with various disabilities and diagnoses, I think it's really cool that you're interested in writing stories about us, but I also think that you may end up trapping yourself in just dealing with too much at once. I'd suggest you focus on what you have, do your research and make accurate, respectful, awesome portrayals of characters with the diagnoses you'd already decided on for them. And then write more stories, with more, different characters, and give equal attention to exploring other conditions if that's what interests you :]

Hi. I forgot to say that yes, I know about autisum because I have it/have done reserched. So, i'm not just going into this blind. But anyways....

Thank you for your reply. Great suggustion.