Autism In Heels by Jennifer Cook O'Toole

Author : Jennifer Cook O'Toole
Title : Autism In Heels
Published : 2018
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing
Pages : 272
Genre : Autobiography

     Autism in Heels, an intimate memoir, reveals the woman inside one of autism's most prominent figures, Jennifer O'Toole. At the age of thirty-five, Jennifer was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and for the first time in her life, things made sense. Now, Jennifer exposes the constant struggle between carefully crafted persona and authentic existence, editing the autism script with wit, candor, passion, and power. Her journey is one of reverse-self-discovery not only as an Aspie but--more importantly--as a thoroughly modern woman.

     As someone who is not neurotypical myself (I have dyslexia) I always find it strange who we are viewed. To often we are written off a stupid or slow, it is something I have struggled with my whole life. How can we explain that the world we see is like everyone else's just a little different? It has also lead me on a path to seek out and understand others who see things just a little different. For the longest time, I thought of myself as broken. But this is not the case, the more I find out about others whose minds work a little different I have started to realize that it makes life all the more interesting. After all, if we all hand minds that worked the same way would all logically only come to the same ways to tackle a problem and frankly that all seems a bit boring. 

     So with this all in mind this is how I came to be reading Autism In Heels. There is also a second part that involves a family member who refuses to be tested for fear of the answer. But what I have learned from this author is that fear is what is holding us back to some extent or other. Our brains are what they are, there is nothing to be done about it but that doesn't by any means stop us from pushing them into new places that might just surprise us. What I do appreciate is that it can take a great deal from us to do so. For me having dyslexia means there are things I struggle with but for the most part the world still makes sense. When it comes to autism there is a whole raft of things even I take for granted that are a struggle to deal with. 

     O'Toole did an amazing job of not only showing me what an alien world this little planet of ours can be. But also that there are ways to navigate it that whole make sense to her. It is a matter of learning a skill set that for most people they would not even have to think about. She also battles head-on with the downsides to having autism never once shying away from questions that ether we would not want to or have simply never thought about. I also liked that when talking about these things the author chose to give us a warning first and go so far as to give a page number to skip to if the reader chooses to not go into this topic. It is also a very insightful view of what it is like to be a woman with autism. I had not really thought until reading this book that almost every book or study on the topic was either carried out or about men.  As O'Toole explains, it is simply not that easy to transfer experience and data between the two. First and foremost the autistic mind of men and women work in very different ways. So how they approach the world is a galaxy apart. She also does her best to make the book not feel like a lecture. Whilst explaining each of the problems she gives us anecdotes from her own life to ease the information into our own brains. 

     There are a great many things I will take away from this book. It has given me a much greater understanding of not only what it is like to live with autism but of O'Toole her self. It is a book that strives to educate anyone who should pick it up. It is both a humorous look into a world most have written off and a heartbreaking account of one woman struggling to make it in a world that seems to be changing the rules at any given moment. For me it also makes you appreciate just how easy somethings come to others. That we can never really know the battles of others but we should never stop trying to understand and gain insight, that might not only help us but also them in this crazy world. Lastly and most importantly autism does not make you broken or stupid. it simply means different and there is nothing wrong with that.