Catherine Simpson is a novelist and journalist. Her novel Truestory was recently published by Sandstone Press. It is the story of a boy with Asperger Syndrome who refuses to leave the house and it is told from his mother’s point of view. Catherine was inspired to write the novel after raising her own autistic daughter, Nina Mega, who is now 21.
Nina Mega was diagnosed with autism at the age of ten. She is now 21 and a German Language student at the University of Edinburgh.
My daughter is a Dangerous Woman because she is autistic and proud of it.
My daughter is a Dangerous Woman because she asks questions like:
Who are you to tell me I am disabled?
Who are you to tell me the way I think is wrong?
Who are you to look down on me?
Who are you to leave me out and think I won’t notice?
Who are you to make decisions about autism without asking for an autistic opinion?
Who are you to label me ‘disordered’?
Who are you to tell me I’m ‘inspiring’ while pitying me?
Who are you to tell me what will make me happy?
Who are you to tell me to learn to be ‘normal’?
Who are you to tell me how to live and who to be?
My daughter is a Dangerous Woman because
My daughter asks the questions other people don’t know to ask.