21andsensory Podcast

On today's show I have the awesome Matt 💫. Matt is an AuDHD parent, partner, and self-taught artist currently located near Baltimore. They specialise in things like ads, album covers, packaging, merch design, social posts/stories, marketing collateral & branding. I’ve been following Matt for a while on their epic Instagram account called @prettycoolstrangers and at this point I’m basically obsessed with Matt's design video tutorials on how they make posters (and posts on recommendations for cool fonts) so can’t wait to chat to them!

Matt's links:

• Instagram: @prettycoolstrangers
• Website: prettycoolstrangers.com
• Shop: prettycoolstrangers.com/shop
• prettycoolstrangers x casetify collection: casetify.com/artist/prettycoolstrangers

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

I am really excited to chat to today's special guest which is the lovely Chloe Tear. Chloe is 24-years-old and is an award winning disability blogger and freelance writer with 9 years experience. On her blog she documents her lived experiences as a disabled young woman and she currently works in the charity sector as a Content Designer.

Chloe has had Cerebral Palsy from birth, but became visual impaired during her first year of university. In 2020, she was accepted onto the waiting list for a guide dog and she cannot wait to be matched with a fluffy companion. Chloe's sight-loss continues to deteriorate and she has recently been registered as severely sight impaired (formally known as blind).

Chloe's Links:

• Twitter: twitter.com/chloeltear
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chloe_tear
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/chloetear
• Chloe's Website: chloetear.co.uk

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

On today's show I have the awesome Louis. He is a neurodiverse influencer and a super talented drummer, who does duets on Tiktok (where he has almost 50,000 followers) and uses popular sounds share funny and very relatable videos about being autistic. Louis is most known for his spectacular invisible drum kit...which I will ask him more about in the episode! He is over on Instagram too @louisrobertsmusic and is part of a collective account called @autism_unmasked.Louis's links: Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/louisrobertsmusic/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thatautisticdrummer Twitter: https://twitter.com/thatASDdrummerMy 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

On today's episode I am excited to chat to special guest Aoife Dooley. Aoife is an award winning Illustrator, author and comedian from Dublin, Ireland. Aoife is known for her Your One Nikita series which chronicles the life of a 22 year old woman called Nikita. She published her first book 'How To Be Massive’ in October 2016 and her second in 2017 called 'How To Deal With Poxes'. 

In 2018 Aoife was diagnosed as Autistic at the age of 27. Since then she has spoken about her own experiences at many events which have resonated deeply with audiences. She has shared how a diagnosis helped her to truly begin to understand herself and has created comics and diagrams around the subject of what Autism is to her. 

She published her first Children’s book in 2019 called 123 Ireland. In 2020 Scholastic UK acquired world rights to Frankie's World which is a graphic novel based on the Aoife's real-life experiences of Autism. The book was published in January 2022.Her second board book ‘ABC Ireland’ was released on March 2022, so we are going to have a lot to chat about! 

This episode contains some swearing so has been marked as Explicit. 

Aoife's Links: 

• Website: http://aoifedooleydesign.com 
• Shop: https://onlymassive.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Aoife_Dooley
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aoife_Dooley
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dooleydoodles 

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

Hi everyone! On today's episode I have the very lovely Cheryl who you may know as @_thislineismine on TikTok and Instagram!

This is the second time Cheryl has been on my podcast, we last spoke in December 2020 (Episode 28) about their autism diagnosis and journey on TikTok. Cheryl had 200,000 followers on TikTok at that time and they now have over HALF A MILLION (524,000) followers!

So Cheryl is here for a catch-up about everything they have been up to and there's been some hugeeeee things happening recently!

Cheryl's links:

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@_thislineismine
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_thislineismine/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/_thislineismine

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

On today's show I have a very special guest, the wonderful Ruby Woods. Ruby is an Autism activist, blogger and a disabled theatre maker who is currently developing her practice in disability arts and inclusive theatre working as a lead practitioner.

You may know Ruby from her wonderful TikTok (where she has over 100,000 followers!) and her Instagram both called @rubyofmyeye. She also has a brilliant youtube channel named Ruby Woods, so I think I'm going to have a lot to chat about with Ruby today!

Ruby's Socials:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubyofmyeye/
• TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@rubyofmyeye
• Website: https://www.animatetheatre.com/about
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RubyWoodss/featured
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rubyswoods

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

On today's episode we are having another little catch-up, so just me no guests (but keep an eye-out because I've got some exciting guests coming on soon!).

I wanted to chat through some life updates, some autism-related books I have been reading, a Sensory Street project update, and how to make your own DIY Sensory Box.

Links:

Sensory Street (Oxford University Project):

• https://sensorystreet.uk
• https://www.instagram.com/sensory_street/
• https://twitter.com/sensory_street

Autistic / Autism related books:

• ‘CAN YOU SEE ME? DO YOU KNOW ME? and WAYS TO BE ME' by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott.
• 'Diary of a Young Naturalist' by Dara McAnulty
• 'Wintering' by Katherine May - also wrote 'The Electricity of Every Living Thing'
• 'Perfectly Weird, Perfectly You' by Dr Camilla Pang
• 'The Independent Woman's Handbook for Super Safe Living on the Autistic Spectrum' by Robyn Steward
• DIY Sensory Box Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcvWxJDM7My/

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon 

On today's episode I am very excited to chat to special guest Dr James Cusack. James is the Chief Executive at Autistica which is the UK’s leading national autism research charity. He joined the charity in September 2015 as Director of Science following a career in autism research at the University of Aberdeen, and he later became Chief Executive there in 2020 and is the first openly autistic CEO of a major charity.
Autistica focus on enabling autistic people to live happy, healthy, long lives. They do this by by working with autistic people to understand their needs, funding research and shaping policy.

In this episode, James talks about Autistica’s six visionary and ambitious 2030 Goals for the change they want to see in society and how they are trying to use research to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to changing the public’s attitudes towards autism and autistic people.
James has sat on a number of advisory panels discussing the role of research in autism, and was vocal in the production of the report, 'A Future Made Together'. He was part of a core stakeholder group which successfully campaigned for Scotland’s first ever autism strategy.
It was great to chat to James a bit more about Autistica as well as more about himself and his background.

Autistica Links:

• Autistica's 2030 Goals: https://www.autistica.org.uk/about-us/2030
• The blog post on understanding that James mentioned (which he wrote): https://www.autistica.org.uk/blog/understanding
• Website: https://www.autistica.org.uk
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/autistica
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autisticauk/
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com//company/autistica
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOczrUsUjmBbUMPT0HIgGKg
• Donate: https://www.autistica.org.uk/donate/donate

Dr James Cusack Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamcusack
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cusackjames
• More about James and the Autistica team: https://www.autistica.org.uk/about-us/our-team

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

Welcome back to another 21andsensory Podcast! On this episode I'll be chatting about an Oxford University project called Sensory Street. I am very lucky to be part of the project team and I thought it would be great to base an episode around the project and speak to some lovely people who are on the team! I chat to Becky from Sensory Spectacle, Dr Keren MacLennan and Catherine Woolley about their project roles.

During 2021 we posted a series of questions on our social media pages and ran a series of focus groups with autistic people to learn more about their sensory experiences. We analysed the results of these and wrote up our findings. We will use this information to help us create our immersive event in 2022.

Sensory Street Links:

• Website: https://sensorystreet.uk
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sensory_street
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensory_street/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sensory-Street

My podcast guests from the team:

Becky, Sensory Spectacle:

• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SensorySp
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensoryspectacle/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIQ6vrkCOeZhK1J8sR0JbeA
• Website: https://www.sensoryspectacle.co.uk/

Dr Keren MacLennan:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerenmaclennan
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theanxiousscientist/

Catherine Woolley:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_communicat/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_communicat
• More info on Catherine: https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/catherine-woolley

Team Links:

Dr Cathy Manning:

• More info: https://catherinemanning.weebly.com/about.html
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CManningPhD

Dr Brett Heasman:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Brett_Heasman
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=HIHGda0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Jess Starns

• Website: https://jstarns.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DyspraxicMe
• Dyspraxic Me: https://dyspraxic.me.uk

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon

On today's episode I have special guest Dr Camilla Pang. Camilla holds a PhD in Biochemistry from University College London and is a Postdoctoral Scientist specialising in Translational Bioinformatics. At the age of eight, Camilla was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and ADHD at 26-years-old. Her career and studies have been heavily influenced by her diagnosis and she is driven by her passion for understanding humans, our behaviours and how we work. 

Camilla is the award winning author of 'Explaining Humans' which through a set of scientific principles, examines life's everyday interactions. Her book won the Royal Society Insight investment science book award in 2020 - she was the youngest writer ever to win the prize, and the first writer of colour. She has a new children's book out in March 2022 which is super exciting! She is also a speaker and neurodiversity advocate, and does a range of charity and voluntary work.

TW for this episode: We chat about Exercise and Anorexia between 33:43 - 38:20

We chat about:

• About about her background and her Autism and ADHD diagnoses
• Autistic masking and sensory struggles
• Her experience growing up within the education system and support she had access to
• Her work as an Author, how she goes about writing her books, book promotion and what it's like for her to see her own book in a bookshops!
• Her hobbies and special interests

Camilla's links:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Website

Camilla's books:

• Explaining Humans Book (Published March 2020)
• Perfectly Weird, Perfectly You Book (Out March 2022)

My 21andsensory links:

⁠Illustration Portfolio⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Podcast⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠ | ⁠Blog⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠⁠Bluesky⁠ | ⁠Patreon