There are countless damaging myths about autism that have penetrated the cultural zeitgeist in recent years. These harmful myths lead to seemingly endless instances of equally harmful autistic “representation” — anyone remember the disaster surrounding Sia’s movie Music? Luckily, there is hope for the future of autism representation: Emily Holyoak’s Good Morning, Dinah — published by…
Accurate representation of disabled characters in literature is already quite rare, but even more infrequent are nuanced depictions of disabled characters in romantic relationships. (We’re excluding narratives that end with said characters dying.) However, in L.S. Rydde’s The Pearls of Yesterday, its main character, Abigail, lives with spinal muscular atrophy and a deep desire to…
For the 3rd Annual Book Party today, our Senior Editor, Madison Parrotta, debunks some books with disability representation. Not all books are written equally, so we wanted to dive into some of the harmful and stereotypical messages that hide between the pages. Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for all the books mentioned. My Brother Charlie by…