Self employment is great for autism

Written on 21st Aug 2013 by Alex Lowery

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I have just set up a my business about raising autism awareness through public speaking, writing and awareness training for organisations. I wrote a previous article about the difficulties I would face in employment. 

I get a lot of help and support from my family.

 

 

Now that I am full time self employed in my own business I feel really happy. It is something I thought I might never get. To think this all started with my mum reading an article about an autistic man from the newspaper when I was 14. I was shown videos of him on Youtube and I started to watch more and more videos that were about autism. Every day I watched different videos, some I watched over and over again.

This led me to start making my own videos about autism and how it affected me. I finally had my own account when I was 15. I would respond to other videos and would explain how autism affected me personally. I had a lot of followers. I closed the account in 2011 when I was 17 because of nasty trolling. However I had found something I really enjoyed. It seemed an impossible dream to be able to make a living from it.

 

I did my first speech for St.John’s Ambulance and was eventually mentored in Public speaking by Autism Cymru. It has taken a few years to get to the point where I am ready to go into business but that time has come.

 

I am very happy that I now have a job. It’s like a dream come true. I only want what other people take for granted. I would not be able to do this if my family and especially my mum were not so supportive. My mum is involved with everything and will take me to do the talks. My dad does the accounts, my sister in law built my website and designed all my leaflets and business cards. I also have a mentor Margaret Carter who gives me business support and advice.

 

As well as raising awareness I would like to set up a support group for adults with autism. I would like to get funding for social skills training and self employment support for this group. If you are reading this and are interested in helping please get in touch.

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