Autistic autobiography – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Blurb

A summary of my book:

I’m diagnosed with autism
20 years after telling a doctor I had it.
My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.
My friendship with an elderly man who runs the
corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me.
Homelessness.
Stripping.
More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.
I hate everyone at Edinburgh uni etc.
REDACTED as too spicy.
After everyone tells me I don’t look autistic,
I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.
REDACTED as too embarrassing.

If you’ve ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that’s what being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except there’s no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing.

In this book, Fern uses her voice as an autistic, working class woman from Scotland to bring her experiences with sex work, abusive relationships and her time spent in a teenage mental health unit to the page. Written with unflinching honesty, Strong Female Character is a game-changing memoir on sexism and autism.

(I changed some of the blurb copy because Fern Brady has made it clear she doesn’t like being referred to as neurodivergent and wants people to use ‘autistic’ instead.)