A purple book cover with a rainbow flower in the middle. At the top it reads Rebecca Duffus and Lyric Rivera in lavender and pale teal text. Below that, on top of the rainbow flower, it reads "Autism, Identity and Me" in a bold white font and below that it reads "A Practical Workbook to Empower Autistic Adults"
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It took me 10 years to figure out my Autistic needs. We built a shortcut – Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook to Empower Adults, the Autism workbook I needed.

Ten years ago, I walked out of my diagnostician’s office with a label and a list of memoirs about other people’s lives. No one told me how to figure out mine…

When I was diagnosed Autistic, nearly 10 years ago now, I felt very alone with the info.

Back then (even now), there weren’t many resources or services for Autistic adults, especially those who are just starting to learn about Autism & what being Autistic means to us, so I was left wondering what to do with the information.

Lucky for me, the person who diagnosed me recommended several books with stories about Autism by Autistic people, which were helpful. However, these resources focused on other Autistic lives & weren’t tailored to my unique Autistic experience.

While I related to many of the stories I read, they didn’t provide actionable steps I could take in my own life or offer examples of how I could talk to others about what ‘Autism’ meant to me.

Also, none of the people around me at the time understood Autism, & most people in my life dismissed me when I tried to tell them that I’d found out that I was (& always had been) Autistic.

Because I didn’t know enough about Autism (or even my own Autistic experience) yet, I couldn’t push back on the constant invalidation of people telling me they “didn’t believe“ I was Autistic.

What I needed, but could not easily access, was support in evaluating what ‘being Autistic‘ really meant to me – understanding my own Autistic experiences, my unique needs (communication needs, sensory needs, emotional needs), & how to share with others and advocate for myself.

Eventually, after years of work, I did grow to understand my needs & how to talk about them with other people. Still, because I was mostly on my own figuring it all out, the process of unpacking my Autism diagnosis took longer than it could have if I’d had more support in that process.

Looking back on all the things I had to learn, mostly on my own, all these years later, I am filled with joy and excitement to be part of a collaboration that has created the tool that my past self needed but couldn’t access when I was newly diagnosed.

A purple book cover with a rainbow flower in the middle. At the top it reads Rebecca Duffus and Lyric Rivera in lavender and pale teal text. Below that, on top of the rainbow flower, it reads "Autism, Identity and Me" in a bold white font and below that it reads "A Practical Workbook to Empower Autistic Adults"
A purple book cover with a rainbow flower in the middle. At the top it reads Rebecca Duffus and Lyric Rivera in lavender and pale teal text. Below that, on top of the rainbow flower, it reads “Autism, Identity and Me” in a bold white font and below that it reads “A Practical Workbook to Empower Autistic Adults”

That resource is ‘Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook to Empower Adults‘ (published by Routledge). It releases 11/13/26, but pre-sales are already open at some retailers (Barnes & Noble, Amazon & ThriftBooks) & we can’t wait to share it with you!

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