Finding Autistic Joy and Celebrating Autistic Culture

Welcome to the Yellow Ladybugs Pop‑Up Podcast Series, where we bring you two key topics our community have been asking us for. We are proud to the second episode in this series—a peer‑led discussion for families and carers of autistic girls, teens, and gender‑diverse youth on Finding Autistic Joy and Celebrating Autistic Culture.

This is a special series made possible through funding from the Information Linkages and Capacity Building Grant.

We are deliberately bringing you this episode at a time when there has been a resurgence in harmful public narratives about autism, ADHD and neurodivergence – whether it is the media coverage given to out-of-date professionals making uninformed claims that autism and ADHD are over-diagnosed, or politicians dangerous crusades to recreate an environment of fear about autism and autistic people.

These narratives threaten to undermine the progress we have made in recent years to understand and embed neurodiversity as integral to our humanity. As an autistic-led organisation, at the forefront of changing harmful ableist attitudes, we feel it is more important than ever to counter this trend by reminding our community that neurodivergent people belong in this world, that they can find joy, and that they can celebrate their culture – that these things are powerful protective factors, not just for neurodivergent individuals, but for their families, communities, systems and society as a whole. Put simply everyone benefits when neurodivergent people are valued for who they are.

Which brings us to the details of this affirming and uplifting episode where we are delighted to share two celebratory and complementary presentations from the Yellow Ladybugs canon, delivered by two amazing neurodivergent humans with a deep passion for change:

• Marie Camin, a multiply neurodivergent clinical psychologist, researcher and advocate
• Allison Davies, an autistic advocate, educator and speaker

In the first part, Marie gives an honest, unflinching and ultimately uplifting presentation on Finding and Keeping Autistic Joy. She shares her lived experience, acknowledging that it is not easy being autistic in a world that doesn’t recognise your needs, but that there is nothing quite like the feeling of autistic joy—from special interests (or SPINS), and sensory experiences, to stimmy hands and finding neurokin. Marie shares her own experiences of joy, and brings her personal and professional knowledge into exploring how we can support our autistic young people to find and keep their joy- as a protective factor which can support their identity and their mental health and wellbeing.

Please note that Marie’s presentation does make brief references to sensitive topics including trauma, bullying, stalking, grooming, eating disorders, PTSD, abuse and domestic violence.

Allison then brings her strong personal voice to the topic of Exploring Autistic Culture. She explains that autistic culture is not just a concept or a neuro-affirming approach to care; it is something that has always existed – found in autistic families and communities. She reflects on how this looks different for every family and is filtered through our layers of privilege, safety, and capacity. And she explores some of the fundamental concepts that autistic culture requires all of us to understand, so that we may deepen our sense of who our autistic family is and how our culture can support us.

We hope you enjoy listening and we encourage you to reflect on Marie and Allison’s insights and wisdom from our conference archives, and to embrace their generosity in gifting us the many penguin pebbles and moments of authentic connection to be found in this episode!