Introduce yourself.
My name is Lizzy, and I am 26 years old. I have been diagnosed with autism. I am an educator of people with disabilities.
I’ve been at Sky Sirens since the studio reopened in August – so about 9 months! I do Sling and Lyra. My goal is to get to the point where I feel satisfied that I can do the harder stuff. I like to learn from ex-students because they’ve gone through it, so I find it easier to learn from them. I’ve always done dance, and I thought aerials would be nice but something different.
Tell us about your autism diagnosis.
I was diagnosed with autism when I was ten years old. I was diagnosed because one of my friends was autistic, and the teachers saw that I was quiet like him – so I went through the assessments and got diagnosed! It can be hard because you are told a lot about what you can’t do. You are told this repeatedly by medical professionals and teachers. I was told I couldn’t graduate, or do HSC – but I did, and I went on to get my Bachelors and Master’s degrees. I’ve been fired a lot because of it, and I’ve had problems with other people who think that I need more help than I actually do. It’s fun to surprise people and show them that I can do this and I am fine.
Telling people what they can and cannot do can give them negative self-esteem.
When I was first diagnosed, I was told that it was very uncommon as a girl to get the diagnosis. As a teenager growing up, I was told that men want this and men want that. I would think “what do I want? And what can I do to achieve it?”. In some cases, autistic girls think we need to find an autistic man, but no, you don’t.
In my family, all of my male cousins have autism too, and I have a cousin with OCD, but not diagnosed until recently so it was only me growing up with the diagnosis.
How does it impact you in class?
I can’t move very quickly! I feel like my movements are very limited, so they are one step behind or in front of everyone else. That’s fine, I am used to it – but it is a bit annoying. I don’t have a lot of muscle density, as lots of autistic people have low muscle tone. Anything you build up goes quickly. You have to keep working at it if you want to get better. I get close to teachers if I have them repetitively (like Bolly), and I get very comfortable in this space! It’s like a second home to me because I need the space to feel comfortable. It’s nice to be around people who want you to progress and don’t just see the disability.
Autism is a big part of who I am and my personality. I wouldn’t know how to be neurotypical - I couldn’t imagine it myself. Only last year, I started being more open about it and even put it on my resume and started stimming in public. If I have to stim, I am going to stim. I go into things saying I am autistic, and you have to deal with it.
What do you want people to know about autism?
I want people to know that autism comes in different shapes and sizes. Ask someone what their triggers are that cause anxiety and depression. Don’t step carefully around us – we have to look after ourselves and be independent. Ask us what we need. And us autistics need to get better at asking for what we need, as opposed to being ashamed of it.
