[UPDATED] CHAPTER 10: WELCOME TO AUTISTICA

Reframing autism from disorder to culture, with ten pillars that reveal a shared legacy and a long-missing sense of home.

Autism has long been defined as a disorder, a deficit, or a puzzle to solve. This chapter turns that framing inside out by introducing autism as culture—Autistica—a living tradition built from our shared traits, histories, and ways of being. Angela parallels W. E. B. Du Bois’ “double consciousness” with autistic masking: the exhausting work of living under others’ judgments while never being fully seen. Unlike other identities—Italian American, queer, left-handed—that come with cultural grounding, Autistics have too often been left rootless. Autistica is the missing home.

Angela organizes that culture into ten pillars drawn from lived experience: bottom-up thinking, world-building, justice-seeking, sensory attunement, passionate interests, and more. Pride takes many forms—fandoms, stimming, encyclopedic collections, late-night info dumps, and a roll call of iconic Autistics from Tesla and Bowie to Greta Thunberg. These are not quirks to apologize for but signatures of belonging. The chapter closes on family memory, with Angela’s grandmother’s glass collection reframed as an autistic archive, proof that our culture has always been here, even when unnamed. Through the Autistic Culture Podcast and beyond, she insists: you are not broken, you are part of a legacy. Welcome home to Autistica.