Siena Castellon, BCyA is an 18-year-old internationally recognized neurodiversity advocate and author who is autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, and has ADHD. She is the founder of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, an international initiative that encourages schools to flip the narrative from focusing on the challenges and drawbacks of being neurodivergent to focusing on their strengths and talents. In 2020, over 500,000 students from over 760 schools took part in Neurodiversity Celebration Week worldwide. Siena is also the bestselling author of
The Spectrum Girl’s Survival Guide: How To Grow Up Awesome and Autistic. She was recently selected out of over 7,000 candidates to be a United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals. Siena has won many awards for her advocacy and websites, including the 2018 BBC Radio 1 Teen Hero Award, the British Citizen Youth Award, and Campaigner of the Year at the 2019 European Diversity Awards. Most recently, she was one of three finalists for the Children’s International Peace Prize. She will be studying physics at Stanford University.
There’s a common misconception that autistic teens are anti-social and don’t want to have friends or have no friends at all. This is untrue. Most of us want to have social lives, friendships, and a sense of belonging, just like everyone else. So, how do you make friends as an autistic teen? Friendships can be
Going back to school after the long summer vacation is daunting. While most students feel a mix of excitement and nervousness at the prospect of having new teachers, new classes, new friends, or even a new school, autistic girls are likely to find these changes scary and overwhelming. To make matters worse, the uncertainty and
