The first thing I did was try to find someone to help me as an autistic adult. All I got was, “Sorry, we don’t work with adults, only kids.” No one had any resources they could point me to either. I was just told all resources are for kids.
After this, I felt the deep lost feeling of, “Why won’t someone help us? Why won’t someone stand up for us? Why is no one doing anything?”
In my sadness and frustration, I thought, “Why not me? Why don’t I do it?” This is when The Autistic Innovator autism blog began.
The Core of The Autistic Innovator
I didn’t know everything, and was at the beginning of my autism self-discovery journey, but I couldn’t sit by and do nothing, so I created an autism education blog to teach absolutely everything I learned as I learned it. We autistic adults were ignored, neglected, and treated like we didn’t exist.
October 2020 to December 2020: The First 3 Months of The Autistic Innovator
In the early days I listened to too many blogging about blogging courses and was completely of course, but I quickly found my way back to writing from the heart.
Ever since I was a 12 year old kid, all I’ve ever wanted to be was an entrepreneur. I had a notebook where I would write down all of my business ideas that I could do as a kid, and get started on my dream at 12.
In October after my blog started, I got the idea to do a once a month series interviewing autistic entrepreneurs who were doing what I wished so much that I could do, and hoped it could encourage other autistics like me towards entrepreneurship.
The first interview I did was with elly, who had a new business as a personal organizer.
There was an autistic I knew a very long time ago named Nick who had a side business hand painting tabletop war game figurines. I had never heard of anything like that, so I asked if they would be my second interview.
From there, I did a series of 8 interviews with autistic entrepreneurs over 8 months.
Can Cats Be Autistic: The First Autism Article in 2020
When I got my new cat Dinah back in 2020, I was convinced if she were a human she would be an autistic human.
She didn’t trust me at first, so I communicated with her the only way I knew how, through routine.
I’d go in her room and do things at the same times every day in the same order, so she could learn that she can trust me.
I thought she would hate me forever because she really made me work to earn her love.
Dinah was the inspiration for my 2020 autism article: Can Cats Be Autistic? 7 Reasons Why Your Cat Might Have Autism
Of course, we all know cats can’t be autistic, at least we think, but we autistics have a lot in common with cats.
The 2020 Creation of The Visual Schedule Planner:
In the first month of my blog, I was struggling to keep up with everything, so I created my own planner to help me organize my new autism blog.
My brain couldn’t handle by the minute and hour scheduling, because I’d feel like if I don’t start at exactly 2:00pm and don’t get started until 2:01pm then it’s too late to get started and I failed.
I realized this would get me nowhere, and there was no planner out there that aligned with how my brain worked, so I created my own planner.
It was a weekly schedule planner with blocks of time for morning, afternoon, and evening. I added little checkboxes on each block of time for done and rescheduled.
It really helped me a lot to get a handle on this new autism blog.
Eventually I wrote an article about it to share my method with others long before I created an actual planner to sell.
The How to Make a Visual Schedule for Autism was to share the method I used to help myself with fellow autistics, in hopes it would help them too.
January 2021 to June 2021: The Months Before the Store
From January to June in 2021, I didn’t have the idea for an online store yet, so I focused on writing as many blog posts as I could for the autism blog.
During this time period I worked in an office by myself with a door, and the employer just let me shut out everyone and didn’t bother me, so I took advantage and wrote a lot of articles for my autism blog.
Even though I was still early on in my autistic self-discovery journey, I wrote an article titled What to Do After an Autism Diagnosis to encourage fellow autistics as best as I could.
Back then, I was struggling a lot with understanding my own emotions. It felt like a world of mystery I couldn’t understand, and I was in a constant guessing game trying to figure out why my body had a physical anxious feeling. I thought, “Am I actually anxious? Am I just dehydrated? Is something bothering me and I don’t know it?”
I learned about Alexithymia and suddenly it all made sense, so I shared my knowledge with others in my Living with Alexithymia: Love, Life & Relationships article.
This alexithymia self-discovery journey led to me learning how to accept myself for who I am, so I wrote How to Stop Seeking Validation & Validate Yourself to give others a positive message of self-acceptance.
July 2021 to August 14, 2021: Building The Autistic Innovator’s Store
I saw across every social media site where people were asking, “Where can I buy stim toys for adults? Everything is for kids.”
At the time I was working in a poverty wage job with no way out. I thought, “This is the best it’s ever going to get. If I want out of poverty I have to hustle my way out.”
I really wanted to help us autistic adults because we had zero resources. No one was helping us and I had to do something.
The only way I learned how I could get started was with dropshipping and print on demand. It wasn’t ideal, but I was working a poverty wage job living in a dark apartment in a bad neighborhood, so my situation wasn’t ideal.
From July to August in 2021, I mass ordered as many product samples as I could get to start my product testing to make sure I was selling something I’ve actually seen, held, and knew was good quality before I listed it in the store.
Once I had a decent number of products to start with, I was able to start my store.
The Small, Dark Living Situation
I wished so much I could take my own product photos, but since it was a bad neighborhood my windows were barred shut. The time I left my blinds cracked open someone tried to break into my apartment, so I was forced to sit in an apartment with no natural light, just always in dim lighting. It was so bad my cat Dinah had to sunbathe in the only sliver of sunlight because I couldn’t open the blinds.
There were a few demo videos I created though, so I did the best with what I had.
I knew the judgement I was going to encounter for using suppliers photos, but I had no other choice living where I did.
The First Few Products
The Moon & Star Spinner Ring was one of the first 3 rings in the store, and nearly 5 years later it’s still here in The Autistic Innovator, I just ship it myself now.
My Fidget Spinner collection was just the Rainbow Fidget Spinner, which is also still in the store nearly 5 years later.
There were a few autism t-shirts I had back then too.
The First Year of The Autistic Innovator
When my store was only 4 months old, I became physically disabled and lost my retail job because I could no longer stand long enough.
My Essential Tremor that I’ve had since I was 9 years old progressed in January 2022, and I became housebound though July 2023.
Because I lived in a small dark apartment, there was no place to store a wheelchair, and my apartment complex was so poorly cared for, the sidewalks and parking lot broke multiple rollator walkers.
I put an electric wheelchair on my Amazon wishlist and told myself, “someday I will get out of this apartment and have the money to buy this wheelchair, then I’ll have freedom.”
Finally Breaking Out
In July 2023, I found an apartment that was life changing for my business. Everything changed for the better.
There was so much natural light, and I could finally take all my own photos.
I was still dropshipping during this time because I couldn’t afford inventory yet, even though I finally had a whole room I could dedicate to it.
Overcoming Self-Hatred
During the end of 2023, my prices were poverty wage.
I felt I didn’t deserve anything greater than poverty, so my prices ensured that’s what I would get.
I spent Christmas that year very depressed and alone with no humans around, just my cats.
It was with encouragement from others on Mastodon and Twitter that helped me see I deserved to have a comfortable life.
The Autistic Innovator helped me see my life had a purpose and was helping people, so to find my strength for our autistic community, I got it together and found my focus.
I had a great deal of autistic imposter syndrome around that time too, so I wrote an article Autistic Imposter Syndrome: Why it’s Normal to help fellow autistics know they weren’t alone.