I am half English, half Taiwanese, and moved from Taiwan to the UK when I was four. At my first primary school, my teachers ignored my mother’s concerns and insisted I was just “odd”, “slow” and “strange”. It wasn’t until we moved in with my stepdad and I started at a new school that I was diagnosed with autism aged nine. Since then, I have been through secondary school, college, home study, university and work, and tackled many social challenges that autistic people face in the neurotypical world. More recently, I have opened up about my sexuality, and written about some of the challenges I have faced as a lesbian, on top of being autistic and mixed race.
Writing and art have always been two of my lifelong passions. I had wanted to be a writer from a very young age and grew up writing stories and drawing animals for the sheer joy of it. I studied Creative Writing and Journalism at university and passed with a 2:1. Since then, I have worked as a bookshop intern, magazine editor at my old university, copywriter and customer service advisor. I have faced multiple autism related challenges in education and work and worked hard to rise to them. I have also been through many highs and lows in trying to find my place in the church as an autistic, formerly closeted lesbian.
As well as writing and drawing, I like cooking, singing at choir and playing my violin. I am also a keen cat person and have four cats: Suri, Oscar, Opal and Dixie. Since the pandemic, I have been keeping my skills sharp, and am always looking for opportunities to put them to good use.
Artistic Autistic Grace 