Cerys Jones | She/They

Cerys is the owner and editor of Life As Us. With several lived experiences, all of these are recurring themes in Cerys' writing, especially as a late-diagnosed autistic. 

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Before this collaborative project, Cerys wrote for her own personal blog, as well has having pieces published by various renowned charities. A self-proclaimed 'worry pot', Life As Us has been a challenge for Cerys, but admittedly a very worthwhile one. 

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Cerys' blogs address personal battles, internal dialogue, internalised ableism and the daily ins-and-outs of navigating life as a neurodivergent person. She is currently studying an MSc in Disability Studies, Rights and Inclusion.

Alongside academic pursuits,​ in her spare time Cerys enjoys activism, crochet, walking her dog, and playing The Sims - just to name a few!

Hannah Smith | She/Her

Hannah is a late- diagnosed autistic, a mum, a wife, a massive over-thinker, and she loves writing. Writing helps her process big emotions and work through how she experiences the world.

Hannah has always had a strong interest in mental health, and since her diagnosis, autism and neurodiversity have become special interests. She also has a passion for tackling the tricky conversations and talking about the things that others often don’t want to.

Sharing stories is Hannah's small way of trying to raise awareness and understanding, and hopefully help others to also feel less alone and realise that they’re different, not less.

You can expect Hannah to write about all things autism, her experience of being late diagnosed and how it has changed her perspective on life.

Gem Hurley | She/Her

Gem is a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman, learning to navigate the world with the knowledge about herself she’s been searching for years.

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Living with autism and ADHD, Gem knows it’s not news that living as a neurodivergent person can be tough, which she sometimes reflects on in her writing. But she also loves talking about the joy of having a differently-wired brain, for it allows her to see everything in a unique light, and she doesn’t think that gets celebrated enough. Let’s change that, shall we?

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Gem is a self-confessed music nut, and loves going to gigs when she’s able to, as well as long walks in nice weather, a nice date with her husband, and a good movie.

Bethany Preshur | She/Her

Bethany is a late diagnosed, bisexual, autistic woman with low-moderate support needs. She studied English with Education at university, completing her dissertation on “The Power of Representation: The Portrayal of Autistic Women in Television and Film.”

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Known as ‘The Autistic Daydreamer’, Bethany is incredibly passionate about sharing her life as an autistic woman through written and video content creation. In particular, she explores the difficulties of growing up undiagnosed as a competitive dancer, her process of learning to unmask, and advocating for better representation of autistic women in the media.

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In her free time she absolutely adores writing, editing, and reading - but she especially enjoys engaging in her special interests, whether that’s watching Stranger Things, playing The Last of Us with her partner, looking at the stars, or streaming while she plays The Sims 4!

Oli Allen | They/She

Oli is a late diagnosed medium support needs audhder (autistic and adhd). They are non binary and have finally found a space to authentically exist as themself. Oli also has hEDS, fibromyalgia, and PoTs. Oli went to school for child and youth work and uses their experiences, personal and professional, to create posts on their instagram.

Being autistic and adhd is often the main focus of Oli’s writing but Oli also loves to talk about other mental health issues such as OCD,
agoraphobia and c-ptsd. Other things Oli likes to write about include chronic illness and life as a disabled person. They are also a big advocate for disability justice and justice in general. Being neurodivergent isn’t just a small piece of them, it is EVERYTHING, it shapes the way they navigate through and process the world, and Oli hopes to create a space for shared experiences and connection.

Oli is an anime nerd and is currently particularly obsessed with an anime titled Jujutsu Kaisen. They are even more obsessed with two characters named Gojo and Geto. They love reading fanfiction about them, spending time on twitter browsing fanart and watching edits of the show.

Christine | She/Her

Christine is an early diagnosed autistic female with moderate support needs, living in the United States. She was diagnosed aged four. Christine also has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. 

She has self-published two books about her life and experience with autism.  The first book, Working the Double Shift: A Young Woman’s Journey with Autism (2014)  is a memoir about growing up with autism. Christine documents her challenges of transitioning into adulthood and postsecondary education. Her second book, The Revolving Door: The Untold Story of Disability Supports (2024), is a fiction based on Christine’s lived experience dealing with support workers/carers and having to endure frequent staff turnover.  

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Recently, Christine found out she is more moderate support needs through the help of a autistic-affirming therapist.  She couldn’t relate to a lot to high-masking, low support needs autistic people who often dominate discussions in the autistic community. She felt that the autistic community was excluding higher support needs voices and co-opting the neurodiversity movement. Her frustration of medium and high support needs autistic people being pushed aside is what made Christine start her Instagram page “The Jumpy Autist” where she combines her love of writing with content creation.

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Christine’s special interests include Disney, Bluey, Hello Kitty, Paw Patrol, unicorns etc. Along with writing, Christine likes traveling, being out in nature, art and shopping.

Aoife | They/Them

Let's hear it from Aoife:

“I have joined Life as Us to find a platform to share my stories. I’ve always wanted to blog but never knew where to start. I feel like Life as Us is giving me the direction to do so.

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I’m hoping to see the different perspectives of fellow neurodivergent people and learn how to be more accomodating, accepting, and supportive, even to myself.”

Sera | She/Her

Sera is a contributor and social media researcher for Life as Us. She is working to advocate for intersectionality and bring new perspectives into every conversation, while striving for a higher quality of life for the disabled community.

Ruby Tempest | She/Her

Ruby is an early guest writer for Life As Us. Ruby brings a unique - and often poetic - perspective to a range of mental health issues and experiences.

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Outside of writing, Ruby is a painter and multi-disciplinary artist. Recurring themes in her art are death, dying and the in-between. These themes often occur in Ruby's writing, demonstrating the distinctive artistic flare she brings to both her physical art and words.

Nessa | She/Her

Nessa  tries to write her observations on life in a way that makes you consider how she and her stories relate to you and your own.

She feels that journeys can be navigated better through finding connection, mutuality, and interdependence.

Nessa is a disabled woman with physical, sensory and mental health impairments. She also has a daughter who experiences neurodiversity with Autism and ADHD.

Nessa loves art, plays various instruments, sews, crochets, takes photographs, and in a time long, long ago, she studied and wrote poetry. She is also an immigrant with dual citizenship, a mother and has worked in museums and galleries for 13 years.

Amy Wizard-Ponter | She/Her

Always considered ‘quirky’ by default, Amy Wizard Ponter (yes, that is her real name!) like so many women, wasn’t diagnosed as autistic until late, aged 39.​

In the time since, Amy has become intrigued by neurodivergence and has completed some specialist training in different methods to help others learn. However, her driving force is ultimately to help all people in any way she can, and this has led to a considerable amount of lived experience work in multiple areas.​

Every little word matters if it makes a difference. She hopes to encourage, engage and to give. Words have the potential to be powerful gifts, after all.