Hi, my name is Stephanie and I started posting autism-related content to this channel
about two years ago. So, this was actually brought up by some people while I had asked
everyone for some ideas that they would like to see done on my channel
in the form of videos, and people had mentioned that they would be interested in hearing me
basically reflect on my two years of making autism content. And since it has been two years, like,
in a week, since then, I thought that that would work and be appropriate for now. So,
I guess today you're gonna get a little bit of channel history. I actually started this channel
a long time ago just as a user account to be able to comment, and then I had uploaded a video that
got a lot of views. It was a music video, lyric video, rather, to someone's song and it blew up.
And then I just decided to use this account to start my YouTube stuff. I had a lot of
different things I liked to talk about. And when I very first started, it was weight loss journey
type of stuff and, like, getting fit or whatever, and Christian topics, because I'm a Christian, and
kind of just some other random stuff that I enjoy doing. And I think, I can't remember exactly,
but I had to set apart an entire month, I think it was the month of September and I wanted to have a
video for, I think every week. I don't know if I did once a week or twice a week. I don't remember.
I just know that I, like, had this whole plan set out and I was really excited about it, but it
was a rough start. I mean, I'm not intrinsically the most interesting person on the planet earth,
you know? I don't know. It was, I think there was something about setting the precedent for myself
about constant content that kept me going, and I continued. And after I got my autism diagnosis,
I made a video about it in which I simply shared that I was indeed diagnosed with autism
and I promised that this channel wouldn't be taken over by autism content. I apparently
lied. I'm sorry. So, from the very beginning, I had waited until I had an official diagnosis
because I didn't want to talk on something as a definitive if I didn't know for sure.
And it just kind of got started from there. I was doing, I think, three videos a week. And so,
I would do something vloggy or something to do with, like, the whole weight loss type of thing
and I would do something, like, more Christian stuff, and then I would do a video
a lot of times about autism. These videos weren't, like, super ... in-depth by any means. And while I
really wanted to share about autism because I felt so strongly about it as a part of my identity, I
wasn't sure how long that was gonna last, you know? I wasn't an autism expert, right? I was
just someone who apparently actually was autistic and I was trying to learn some things. I had
learned a lot of things through research trying to figure out if this was really something that could
possibly pertain to me, and I shared personal experiences, whether it was the diagnostic journey
or really getting to the point of going for a diagnosis. Apparently, I haven't, in a separate
video yet, talked about my diagnosis and how that worked. I actually had thought I had but it was
kind of intertwined with a different video which apparently has confused some of you. So, I will,
not too long from now, be talking about specifically how I got my diagnosis. But
in general, it was stuff about, like, I think one of my earliest ones was
how to avoid overwhelm. And I got to do a really cool video with a company that gave me
a weighted blanket to review, which was really cool. I really love that blanket. As I kept going,
I think I just became more and more passionate about this part of me and being able to share that
with you, whether it was helping other people discover more about themselves or just, I don't
know, sharing something I learned because I like to research information and research things. I
think you may have figured that out by now if you watch my channel a lot. There's really nowhere for
that information to go if I don't express it through this, for me, personally. People in my
average, everyday life really don't care that much about the kind of things that I research. Over
time, I decided to split my channel into three. This was partially due to feedback and partially
due to a suggestion from a fellow creator, as well, because I was basically trying to
juggle three different audiences on one channel. Wasn't working out so great. I had people who
just wanted to hear Christian content, people who were just interested in my autism content,
and a very minute few who actually even cared about my vloggy, weight loss journey type of
stuff. So, I decided to go ahead and split them apart, so that way I could focus on one audience
per channel, which I think has been much more useful for everyone, so they don't have to see
videos that they don't really care about. And I also didn't want people to feel like they had to,
you know, agree with my religion or have the same beliefs or views that I do to be able to watch
videos about autism. So, I have separated those apart. I have them linked on my main
channel page thingamajig, where it has the featured channels and in my about section. If
you're ever bored and you want to check those out, feel free to do so. In fact, even though I think
my third channel, that I typically call my kind of vlog channel,
it's probably the lowest maintenance type of video, whatever. I do think it actually might
be the most interesting to a lot of you who want to see more of me just as me who I am
and just being me rather than necessarily all the research-y based stuff. So, if that kind
of thing interests you, I would recommend you check that channel out. It definitely,
I think, would meet the desire that a lot of you have to just see me as me, as a person, more
more frequently and kind of see the random things I'm up to at random times. At the beginning of my
understanding about autism and starting to make videos and everything, I had really gotten
started into the community, especially through twitter, of autistic individuals and I started to
feel like that was my place and that was my home. And then things happened and I found out that
people are going to be people: even autistic people. And I had to learn the hard way that
unfortunately everyone can have bad intentions and not everyone is open and kind and nice like
they might claim to be. And I began to feel, again, out of place. I went into major research
videos such as the Autism Speaks mini-series and then later on the ABA video that is super long,
and I feel like those are some of my biggest accomplishments specifically here on this channel.
Through these kinds of things where people have, maybe, come to know who I am, I have learned
a lot about the community. I've learned about the concept of belonging and not belonging,
and I really think that I would like to make our community here a place where people can belong
and not have to necessarily fit in with, like, big name people or whoever kind of feels like they can
speak for the entire community and value each other's voices and realize that, you know, not,
not everybody's going to agree and that's perfectly fine. I've definitely grown a lot,
I feel, in regard to content, whether it's been on my research or my delivery or understanding
how to kind of put things together and not ramble on for 500 years about random things
and really being able to connect with you guys as an audience and a community
and it's really meant a lot to me. I've been, over time, able to, you know, up production quality,
etc. because I've gotten lights and a camera, and like, it's been super cool to me. I do feel
a lot more comfortable now with my understanding of autism through the research that I've done
and maybe interacting a lot with the community. I don't think that, like, I'm by any means some
magical expert or anything other than obviously of my own experiences and perhaps a lot of the
reasons why I experience those things through, again, research-backed kind of information.
However, I do feel a lot more confident to be able to speak with you all and tell you what I know,
what I've learned, and I hope that through these videos, you guys have been able to become
a lot more educated about autism, whether it's relevant to you because you are autistic or you
might be autistic or you have a family member or friend, co-worker - who knows - who is also
on the spectrum, I hope that this information makes us all, you know, more aware of things and
helps spark interest in you as much as it does in me. I think over these two years, I've definitely
managed to find myself and my voice when it comes to things with the autistic community, when it
comes to who I am as an autistic person. I think, at the beginning, I was very interested in kind of
finding my identity in a group, and that I would use phrases that I thought were supposed to be
used. Kind of like using person-first language, for example. These things were presented to me
beforehand as things that you're supposed to use in the special needs community, etc., and so,
I kind of adopted that and then ended up in the autistic community online, finding out that all
that stuff is, like, practically shunned, and then adopting their words, and I finally think I've
found my place where I understand a lot of the autistic community online's kind of perspectives,
as well as maybe the more parent side of things. And I really am feeling that I've ... started
to be able to stand where I want to stand, and whether that's not in total agreement or alignment
with one group or another - I actually kind of hope that I don't completely align with any group,
because I don't want my voice to be just melded into some mass, mass group of ideas. I don't want
to just parrot things that I've heard. I want to think for myself, and I want to be able to stand
on my own two feet. And I think I want to really encourage other people to be able to do the same.
If you don't agree with the majority of autistic people online, that's okay. I think that we're all
allowed to have our own perspectives about our own autism. I don't think that it makes a lot
of sense for people to try to dictate to other people how they should feel about themselves
or what they should say, etc., and I really hope that this is a place where people learn that
not only are there different ideas, but that it's okay to have different ideas and perspectives,
also while grounding those things in research and reality. As for going into the future, I don't
know. I, I probably would have never been able to tell you that I'd be here in the way that I am
two years ago. I didn't think that I'd talk that much about autism. I wanted to share my story,
but I didn't think that I'd be someone that people would actually be like, oh, hey, I know you - you
do autism videos, you know? Like, that's not something I could have imagined. Or known that
I would do deep dive research videos on things that have actually seemed to help a lot of people.
So, you know, I have no idea, but I do plan on going into things that are important to me and
to still continue to look into what I want to look into and share that information with you all and
I really hope that I can continue to contribute as an autistic creator. And whatever the future
holds, I hope it's a good thing. Anyway, thank you all so much for coming along with me on this
random trip down memory lane or whatever. ... This reflection of the last two years of autism
content. I hope that you enjoyed it, and I hope that you'll continue to be with me on this journey
as we continue forward, and yeah. Let me know if you've been here for a while, if you were here
before my channel even split to three different channels, if you like the way that I've been doing
things recently - any of those kinds of things, just let me know in the comments below. I really
love to hear all of y'all's opinions and thoughts and things that you like to express, and it really
does make our community pretty cool. If you're interested in autism-related content from me, you
can hit that subscribe button. I do upload to this channel every Thursday at 4 pm central standard
time. Thank you to everyone who supports me here on YouTube as YouTube members, my patrons over on
Patreon, and a special thank you to my Spaz tier patron, Marie Johannson. Thank you all so much for
watching. I hope that you're having a wonderful week, and I will see you in my next video. Bye!