Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams

I'm a mother of a young boy (4yo) with ASD and this book gave me great hope and insight hearing all the journeys of the individuals who were kind enough to share their stories. This book was helpful to me because I love hearing about individuals who are on the spectrum and their journies, I find it very inspiring and informative. People know that ASD can be a struggle at times and this book taught me that (A) we're not alone and (B) keep positive and your head up, no one knows what the future holds. I say if you got just one piece of good information out of this book, then it's deserves 5 starts to me. Knowledge is power and this book is knowledge and power. Thank you Kerry and everyone who took part of the book.

Excellent job. I forwarded copies to several of her mentors from high school. I love that he found a way to be true to their voices and the dignity your voice brings across the spectrum.I have a proud update that my teen is thriving in pre-med. She's looking into radiology research to reduce the invasiveness of medical procedures. Countless trailblazers set an amazing path on being all you CAN be.Autism is so misunderstood because it's primarily about barriers in communication, social situations, and quirkiness that when combined with complex levels of variant co-existing issues, there is no one solution or voice. A collection like this gives us the chance to bring together the pictures they paint from their experiences to apply as best match our own vs. the clinical and sanitized information.

As a parent of three autistic boys I'm always trying to learn more information to better assist them in life. I've been following Dr. Magro on social media for a little while now and have learned a great deal from him as well as have been inspired by his success and hard work. When I saw the preorder for his book it was a no brainer. I'm only half way through the book but have learned so much about some of the challenges my boys have been facing. I don't plan to push my kids towards getting a college degree if they don't want to go that route, but it's great seeing so many autistic people have gone on to have great success in college and pursuing their dreams. Thank you Dr. Magro for putting this book out.

The media could not be loaded.  This book is essentially a showcase of success stories of kids on the Autism Spectrum(ASD) growing up into adults and their journeys through multiple challenges. From a parents's perspective, this is essential reading because we need an anchor to ground us and help us look forward through all the therapies and school challenges we are facing right now and know that it'll all turn out ok. It's heartening to read so many stories in one place.

I heard about this book on social media and ordered it immediately. I love the concept of this book and love hearing these voices, which are so often marginalized or ignored. Ten stars for the concept! However, I do think the book would have benefitted greatly from a pass or two from a professional proofreader and/or an outside editor or test readers. There are quite a few typos and syntax errors throughout, as well as references with no context or explanation given (who is Joey Travolta and what exactly is his camp?), and missing captions from all the photos in the book (which person is the writer? who are they standing with? how old are they in this picture?) which are a little jarring but which I could certainly overlook.The bigger issue for me is there are lots of places where I wanted a lot more detail, or for the essayist to unpack their story a little (or much) more. Many (not all) of the essays boil down to "I struggled with X as a child, but I was able to overcome it and now I'm doing Y." This format is great if you are merely looking for feel-good, "Chicken Soup For the Soul" type reading; if that's you, this will certainly be a 5-star book. But I really wanted to know HOW they overcame X, what they were thinking or feeling during that time when they were struggling, what specific kinds of things helped them. I wanted as much clarity as possible, and I felt it was often missing.Even when the writers did give specifics, they were often glossed over. For instance, one writer mentions how helpful the "autism resource room" was to him growing up, but doesn't explain what an autism resource room is or how exactly it helped him so much. Maybe "resource room" is a phrase all autistic people are familiar with? But as an outsider to this world, I have no idea. I don't blame that specific writer at all, but I feel like an editor/test reader could have and should have flagged it for follow-up. This is just one example of dozens I encountered with this book. A lot of times, it felt like the writer was trying to be inspirational and glide over the parts of their lives when they struggled most, when I was hoping instead for vulnerability or candidness about those points of struggle and what really helped them get past it. With each new essay, I was ready to be taken on a journey, and often I felt like I was instead teleported to the finish line, if that makes sense.I can see how much heart and work went into this book, and at the end of the day I'm glad I bought it. I would LOVE a Volume 2 that gets a little deeper and doesn't gloss over the nitty-gritty details.

My 3.5-year-old was just diagnosed with autism, and the opinions from others have come in fast. What I'm really interested in are the opinions of those who have gone through the brutal process my family has ahead, and can tell me how they navigated all the different recommendations, social challenges, etc. I think it's wonderful that Kerry Magro has given so many people on the spectrum a platform to share their experiences. This book helped me a lot as a mom of someone who is just starting speech and other behavioral therapies, and makes me want to do right by him. I think we need to hear from people on the spectrum if we want to know how to help young kids or newly diagnosed individuals.

I enjoyed the book because it was written from the perspective of many autistic people who are working their way through life. Their trials and how they dealt (deal) with them, ongoing issues that they have, situations, relationships, all of it. Information coming from someone who lives it daily means so much more and is so much more relatable to. Thank you so much for writing this book and letting those in it express themselves freely without edits, changes or adding to the stories. I am only halfway through the book but I can't wait to complete it.

I found this book helped me understand my adult autistic son even more. Thank you for writing it and sharing all the journies.

I loved reading this book, Kerry is a real credit to the community. Thank you :)

Great to read so many different stories about people on the spectrum and how they succeeded.

Just finished reading this book. Being a parent of autistic daughter, this books is one of my favourite book about autistic people with real life stories. Thank you Kerry for this beautiful book.

I was looking forward to reading this book but yes interesting but most of the people in the book have Aspergers - high functioning autism. So really doesn’t give as insight on autism. So disappointed.