“This Won’t Age Well”: 20 Years of Neurodivergent-Coded Women as Punchlines
Always one to be late to the game, I watched the original Mean Girls movie for the first time in 2018. At the time, I was still ashamed of my learning disability, believed I was inferior, and constantly questioned my intelligence and competence. Early 2000s high school movies often have a weird way of reminding…
Should You Tell Me What to Do? (A Practical Guide)
“You should probably write that down so you don’t forget it.” I was on the phone with the office of disability services at my university trying to arrange a meeting. My pen hovered above the paper, ready to write down the time the receptionist had told me. Upon hearing those words, I quickly dropped it.…
Beyond “Accommodations”: Creating a More Informed World
I was filling out paperwork for the disability office at my university today and found myself staring at one deceptively complicated question: “What accommodations do you need?” I allowed myself a moment to look back on my time in undergrad and re-visit the all-night study sessions, the professor who openly made fun of the concept…
Am I Too Sensitive for the Internet?
When I discovered the world of blogging and social media content back in 2020, I thought I’d mastered the art of speaking my mind without saying anything too controversial (usually by including a lot of disclaimers, parenthesis, and run-on sentences). I didn’t recognize my unfortunate reality of being very opinionated while also having the tendency to take…
Why The “Life Timeline” is a Mechanism of Social Control
We begin measuring growth in life milestones as soon as someone is born, documenting everything from first steps to first teeth. We celebrate these developmental landmarks because they are signs that the baby is in good physical health. When something doesn’t align with an expected developmental timeline, our society encourages parents and health professionals to…
Disability, Identity, and the Allure of “Normal”
Early in life, I developed a habit of escaping my (sometimes) lonely and isolating reality by retreating into an ongoing fantasy of my “dream” future. In this imagined universe, I was older, prettier, more academically successful, and had (from my perspective) the ultimate symbol of social belonging: a long-term heteronormative relationship with a traditionally attractive…
Ableism is a Cyclical Problem: How Social Prejudice Perpetuates Structural Limitation
I looked out the window of the grocery store to see pouring rain. I nervously checked the uber prices, knowing they had undoubtedly gone up due to high demand. Sure enough, a $30 uber was 20 minutes away. The bus stop was a short distance from the store and I would be protected from the…
No, “Smart” Is Not The New “Pretty”: A (not-so)-Brief Defense of Just Letting Girls Exist
When I was young, I was the kind of kid who tried a bit of everything. Gymnastics, ballet, soccer, tap dance, pottery, theatre, and choir were all activities I attempted between ages four and ten and somehow, I seemed to have endless energy at the time to (kind of) learn these various skills. When I…
When Getting Lost Gets Dangerous: The Scary Reality of Being a Directionally Challenged Women
If you’ve known me for any length of time, you probably know that struggling with navigation and directions is one of the most difficult parts of my learning disability. While this used to be a huge source of embarrassment for me, I’ve learned to use my awkward getting-lost-moments as a chance to explain my situation…
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