I think it’s fair to say that almost everyone in Britain has heard of autism now. In that sense, “autism awareness” has been achieved.
But if you want to know whether we’ve achieved autism acceptance, look no further than how we are perceived by the public… and how we are persuaded to perceive ourselves. This includes how we are represented in popular media, and whether that representation is accurate, respectful and meaningful. Because for better or worse, it can be very revealing about wider perceptions of us.
As an autistic author and advocate, I got bored of there being so few books representing non-savant autistic people with difficult backgrounds, and doing so positively. So I wrote four of them.
The value of representation
Fiction is an underrated battleground when it comes to neurodivergent acceptance. The power of having heroes who think differently has been evident in people’s reaction to the Underdogs series – my four-part dystopia saga where heroes from a special school become the last hope for the freedom of the British people.
“There are a whole host of neurotypes that haven’t had their deserved time in front of a wide readership.”
I have seen the delighted-but-also-shocked faces of autistic teenage readers discovering a book with outwardly autistic characters (and not just autistic side characters, or people who need saving – front-and-centre autistic heroes). Because popular literature all too often tells them that they aren’t “supposed” to be the protagonists.
Read: Books for Neurodiversity Celebration Week
But this goes beyond autism. There are a whole host of neurotypes that haven’t had their deserved time in front of a wide readership. The Underdogs series features a wide-ranging cast, reflecting the different brains I saw during my work in special education: dyslexia, ADHD, Down’s Syndrome and PDA among others are also represented. Because let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw those brains represented together in a book other than a diagnostic manual?
Turning the tide
Neurodivergent heroes, for now, are so rare that Underdogs is still seen as unusual. They are so unexpected in mainstream fiction that I’ve even been asked whether my novel series is for charity! Even in the Guardian’s review of the second book, the series was described as one that “serves real purpose” beyond its action-paced narrative, which is a great compliment – but I can’t wait for us to move past how atypical Underdogs is.
But that’s a society-wide issue: one that will take years to influence. Tides may turn, but they turn slowly. In the meantime, it helps to see the impact the Underdogs series has had on individuals: the students I see during author visits to special schools, people on the internet producing fanart and fanfiction, and the parent who told me she’d “caught” her reluctant-reader teenager reading the first book, and saying “this is the first time I’ve ever read a book and identified with its characters”.
These are huge moments of promise. And I fully believe we’ll get that societal change. Even if we do it person by person.
About the author
Chris Bonnello is a writer and speaker, formerly a primary school teacher, based in Nottingham. Having been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome as an adult, he launched Autistic Not Weird in 2015 to share his personal and professional insights whilst campaigning for greater understanding of autism. Since then, he has won multiple awards for his work, published a non-fiction book, and spoken as far away as Sydney Opera House. To this day Bonnello maintains a link to teaching, working as a tutor for autistic students with special educational needs. Underdogs was his first novel in 2019, following his master’s degree in Creative Writing. Underdogs: Uprising by Chris Bonnello is the latest novel in the series, released in February 2024 by Unbound.
