#AskingAutistics with Lyric Rivera, NeuroDivergent Rebel
Lyric Rivera joined Autism Empowerment and Spectrum Life Magazine as a contributing writer in 2022. A prolific, passionate, and powerful autistic self-advocate from Texas, Lyric runs the internationally recognized neurodiversity lifestyle blog, Neurodivergent Rebel. They also manage NeuroDivergent Consulting and provide training and education around Autistic and NeuroDivergent inclusion in the workplace.
In each blog article, Lyric shares their own experience with an important topic providing insight and education to people who wish to better understand Autistic people. They then ask a question of #ActuallyAutistic and neurodivergent people through social media that is related to the chosen topic and shares a variety of answers so that many autistic voices are encouraged, uplifted and heard.
Lyric Rivera is the pioneer of the #AskingAutistics hashtag on Twitter. This important hashtag allows anyone to ask questions of autistic people, often noted as #ActuallyAutistic, so they can receive various autistic perspectives. The Asking Autistics blog series was previously published at GeekClubBooks.com and when the Geek Club Books nonprofit closed at the end of 2021, Autism Empowerment was given permission to reprint their work. At that time we began a new partnership with Lyric to provide quarterly articles for Spectrum Life Magazine and monthly blogs for our nonprofit Autism Empowerment.
In each blog article, Lyric asks a new question of their #ActuallyAutistic and/or neurodivergent readership and then shares their own experience talking about a specialized topic answering each question and will then share a variety of answers from autistic individuals who answered via social media.
Lyric’s Articles for Spectrum Life Magazine and #AskingAutistics questions to #ActuallyAutistic people
Clicking on the issue date will take you to the full digital issue of Spectrum Life Magazine. Clicking on the article title will take you specifically to that online blog. Additional blog topics are included below. Bookmark this page to see new blog postings each quarter!
Spring 2022: How did you find out you were Autistic? How old were you when you found out?
Summer 2022: Can you relate to ever being too trusting?
Fall 2022: Are you hyperlexic?
Summer 2023: Do you engage with Rhythmic Stimming?
Summer 2023: The Myth that “Real Autistics Can’t Camouflage”
Fall 2023: Do You Find Non-Human Animals Easier to Understand Than Humans?
Fall 2023: Do Medications Work Differently for Autistic People?
Winter 2023: Autistic Person or Person with Autism or Other? Why?
Winter 2023: Has anyone ever dismissed you by saying: “You must be high functioning?”
Summer 2024: Do you hate the grocery store? If so, why?
Summer 2024: The NeuroDivergent Urge to leave NeuroTypical society behind. Do you ever feel it?
Lyric Rivera with their book Workplace Neurodiversity Rising
All articles for Autism Empowerment and Spectrum Life (includes blogs and magazine pieces)
New but NOT Improved: Asking Autistics about Product Changes
How “new and improved” products can disrupt Autistic lives.
Question posed: You are at the store and find that they’ve placed a “new and improved” label on your favorite item. What do you do?
Asking Autistics: Communities that Attract Autistic People
Connection, comfort, and common passions.
Question posed: What’s a community that attracts a lot of Autistic people?
Asking Autistics: What Do You Love About Being Autistic?
Autistic adults sharing strengths and joys.
Question posed: What do you love about being autistic?
Asking Autistics: Having Our Needs Fully Met
Creating safe spaces for autistic people
Question posed: If Autistic people had their needs fully met at work, home, and social settings, what would that look like?
Asking Autistics: You Can’t Possibly Be Autistic
When your autism diagnosis is not believed or is dismissed by others.
Question posed: What is the most ridiculous reason someone has told you that you “can’t possibly be Autistic?”
Asking Autistics about the hidden world of internal and silent stimming.
Question posed: Who else engages in internal mental (silent/invisible) stimming?
Asking Autistics: Do You Feel Emotionally Safe Asking for Help?
Or do you hide your confusion and try figuring things out on your own?
Question posed: Do you feel emotionally safe asking for help or do you hide your confusion?
Introduction to Neurodiversity from a Neurodivergent Lens
Discussion about neurological diversity and different types of neurodivergence
Question posed: The neurodivergent urge to leave neurotypical society behind. Do you ever feel it?
Asking Autistics: Do you hate grocery stores?
Dealing with grocery store sensory overload and overwhelm. Noise, smells, lights.
Question posed: Dealing with the grocery store nemesis: Do you hate the grocery store? If so, why?
Asking Autistics: Has anyone ever dismissed you by saying “You must be high functioning”?
When your diagnosis validity is questioned because of ignorance and false perception.
Question posed: Has anyone ever dismissed you by saying “You must be high functioning”?
Asking Autistics: Person with Autism or Autistic Person or Other? Why?
Language has power to shape our social reality. Words matter.
Question posed: Autistic Person or Person with Autism? Or other? Why?
Asking Autistics: Do medications work differently for Autistic people?
If so, why aren’t we doing research or looking into solutions?
Question posed: Do medications work differently for autistic people?
Asking Autistics: Do you find animals easier to understand than humans?
Body language and bonding with our fur-ever friends.
Question posed: Do you find non-human animals to be easier to understand than humans?
Asking Autistics: The Myth that “real” Autistics can’t camouflage
Masking is more complex than people realize and can often be a survival mechanism.
Question posed: One of the worst Autism myths I’ve seen online is: “Real autistics can’t hide their autistic traits – if you can camouflage, you are not really autistic” – This one’s so wrong I don’t know where to start. What would you say about this one?
Asking Autistics: Music and Rhythmic Stimming
Self-regulating through music and rhythm.
Question posed: Do YOU stim with music or engage with rhythmic stimming?
Asking Autistics: Late Autism diagnosis and its impacts
Not knowing why you are the way you are can have enormous consequences.
Question posed: Why do YOU think there are so many undiagnosed/late diagnosed (discovered) Autistic people in the world?
Asking Autistics: Hyperlexia in autistic and neurodivergent people
Hyperlexia: when a child starts reading early and surprisingly beyond their expected ability; often accompanied by an obsessive interest in letters and numbers that develops as an infant.
Question posed: Are you hyperlexic?
Asking Autistics: Non-autistic gatekeepers gatekeeping Autism.
Grief cycles of autism – When others cast seeds of doubt.
Question posed: What’s the most annoying example of non-Autistic gatekeepers gatekeeping autism you can think of?
The whole “autism is overdiagnosed” crowd really gets to me, since I personally believe Autism is still underdiagnosed, NOT overdiagnosed.
Asking Autistics: What makes going to a health care appointment a positive experience?
Accessing healthcare and working through medical phobia
Question posed: What makes going to a health care appointment (medical, mental health, and/or dental) a positive experience?
Asking Autistics: Can you ever relate to being “too trusting”?
Manipulations, liars, and trust.
Question posed: Initially, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and want to trust people… but being “too trusting” has gotten me in trouble a lot over the years.
Also: my trust, once lost, is very hard to get back. Anyone relate?
Asking Autistics: How and when did you find out you were Autistic?
Connecting experiences of adults on the autism spectrum
Question posed: How did you find out you were Autistic? How old were you when you found out?
I will go first: I found out because of Autistic burnout, from Autistic masking making me physically and mentally ill. I had to be in crisis to be diagnosed. I was 29.
Asking Autistics: Did it become harder to camouflage as you got older?
Autism, masking, and aging
Question posed: #ActuallyAutistic #AskingAutistics (especially 30+), as you got older, did it become harder for you to camouflage/hold yourself to NeuroTypical expectations?
I pushed til I broke, burned out, got really sick, thought about not continuing “the game,” and then was diagnosed Autistic.
Asking Autistics: What sensations give you sensory euphoria?
Sensory seeking pleasures: lights, smells, sounds, action!
Question posed: Sensory beings – What sensations give you sensory euphoria?
Asking Autistics: What Can We Do if Change is Hard for Us?
Like it or not, changes tend to be moments of learning and growth.
No question posed to others in this article.
Editor’s note: This article about dealing with change was the last column that Lyric Holmans Rivera wrote as a columnist for the charity Geek Club Books. After Geek Club Books closed their doors, Autism Empowerment, the 501(c)(3) neurodivergent-led nonprofit charity that publishes Spectrum Life Magazine received the right to republish Lyric’s old columns. We also added them to our team as a regular columnist for our website and our nonprofit publication, Spectrum Life Magazine.
Asking Autistics: How do you remember to take care of yourself?
Taking time for self-care and bodily needs
Question posed: For those who struggle to sense bodily needs such as hunger and the need for bathroom breaks…
What tips do you have to help take care of yourself and remember to mind your bodily needs?
We add a new column almost every month. If you like Lyric’s work, please bookmark this page and consider a tax-deductible donation to Autism Empowerment so that we may continue to support paying Lyric and other autistic writers for their contributions. Also check out Lyric’s website listed in the bio below.
Lyric Rivera is an autistic self-advocate from Texas who runs the neurodiversity lifestyle blog NeuroDivergent Rebel. They are also the founder of NeuroDivergent Consulting. Lyric is known as the pioneer of the #AskingAutistics hashtag, where simple questions prompt open-ended responses that Autistic people can easily chime in with, and invites participants to engage each other in conversations related to the topic. This hashtag connects NeuroDiverse people who would not otherwise have a reason to engage with each other, and fosters collective understanding of the Autistic experience. www.neurodivergentrebel.com
last updated 07/29/2024