Have you ever felt as though the world is constantly working against you? Felt drained from the ‘simple’ everyday? While these are not definite markers, you may be in the same boat as many people – people with later life autism or ADHD diagnoses.
More than one in seven people in the UK are estimated to be neurodivergent. Many don’t receive a diagnosis until later in life.
Jess Joy and Charlotte Mia have crafted an easy-to-digest and informative book, made for the autistic/ADHD community by their community.
The authors
Both authors were diagnosed with autism and ADHD in their adult years. Like many in the same situation, they felt the pressure of the world pushing against them, forcing them into a mold that wasn’t made for them.
Blossoming from their experiences and their want to help others came the @iampayingattention Instagram account. The social media-based community acts as a safe space for the neurodivergent to share and explore their experiences.
@iampayingattention on Instagram has over 100,000 followers and a yearly growth of 376 per cent.
But the pair weren’t finished there, they decided to co-create a book dedicated to helping the neurodiverse – diagnosed or not – unpack things about their life that they may not even realise they’re holding on to.
How Not to Fit In
How Not to Fit In is a great guide for autistic/ADHD individuals to learn more about themselves, or to feel some relief that others have shared similar experiences to them. It’s also a fantastic read for anyone just curious to find out more about neurodivergence.
The book is split into three parts. Each one focuses on separate issues, statistics, information, and experiences all relevant to neurodivergent people. At the end of each part is a workbook section for readers to fill in what they have learned or what thoughts they have had when reading.
How Not to Fit In contains information from experts, Mia and Jess’ own personal experiences, and experiences from those in the community. It gives a broad scope of information to readers.
The first thing that I had noticed about How Not to Fit In was the layout.
It has lists, important information in bold, and quotes scattered throughout the book. Instead of being greeted by a block of text, something which can be daunting for the neurodiverse, How Not to Fit In was styled with accessibility in mind.
Brig had the opportunity to sit down with the authors and talk to them about the book.
Jess told Brig: “We care about accessibility, and we want our community to actually be able to read [the book].”
“What was it like writing a book as autistic ADHDers?”
“Thinking the way we think, […] and wanting to include so much detail, we’d get so tripped up constantly on [thinking] ‘I need to give all of the information and every angle and all the nuances’ and then it’s like four pages just to describe one thing,” Mia laughed.
“We really had to learn to condense [information],” Mia continued.
“It was brutal at times,” Jess admitted.
Discussing the more personal – and traumatic – contents of the book, Mia told Brig that it “was weird at times to have to process something and write it down”.
“Did you ever think that you would end up writing a book?”
“Each milestone feels very surreal, it feels surreal that we’re here now,” Jess said.
“Even although we’ve got the physical books in our hands, I’ve still not really processed it. I’m not sure when [the realisation] is going to kick in. There will be a time where it feels more real,” said Mia.
“What chapter did you enjoy writing most?”
“I don’t know if I have a favourite chapter, but there is a part at the end [of the book] that is like a manifesto. It’s a quite easy to digest summary of our feelings and thoughts […]. I think that’s probably one of my favourite part of what we do overall, hopefully with words give people a warm hug,” explained Jess, Mia nodding along in agreement.
“If readers could only take one thing away from the book, what would you want it to be?”
“I think just that we all need to be a little bit more understanding [and] compassionate,” said Jess.
The pair agreed that they wanted readers to have a sense of self-acceptance and reassurance that they have a community behind them.
How Not to Fit In released today (15 February, 2024).
To follow Jess and Mia’s story, or to find out more about their work, visit I Am Paying Attention here.
Featured Image Credit: Jess Joy and Charlotte Mia
Fourth year student journalist studying Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Journalism Studies.
Words at Brig, The Daily Evergreen, Alloa Advertiser, Discovery Music Scotland, and The Mourning Paper.
