WE ROAR Magazine April 2024 - Magazine - Page 10
So I would do graffiti and skiving. I wasn't a bad
kid, but I wasn't down the straight and narrow
either. And then as I got older as well, it was in
other ways. I had a different boyfriend every
couple of weeks. I was quite promiscuous and
bisexual as well. So they weren't all boys. And I
thought, this is me. I'm not going with societal
expectations. I'm doing things that are quite
daring and brave and edgy.
other things. So she was quite a forward-thinking
leader on Autism, Autistic herself, obviously. Her
child, Fergus, they took Dinah’s idea, Weird Pride,
and Weird Pride Day, and made it a thing. For the
last three years, I've been involved in Weird Pride
Day, supporting Fergus, and we've done social
media storms with the #WeirdPrideDay, and
there's been some Zoom events and live streams
and things.
And people still think I'm a nerd. Eventually, you
think, you know what? It's alright, it's great to be
academic and a bit of a nerd. I'm not going to
keep trying to prove that I'm not. But looking
back now, I think that's even more of a rebellion.
Saying to the popular kids, F you. I actually don't
care what you think of me. Now I'm going to try
and prove you wrong because I'm not what you
think I am, but actually just you're completely
irrelevant to me. It's me just doing my own thing.
Now, that's the rebel without a cause.
Pride isn't about showing off and thinking you're
better than other people. It's about refusing to be
ashamed. So this image of me ... as a quirky kid
that's got some unfashionable hobbies and some
weird mannerisms and who doesn't dress
fashionably and things like... I'm going to say,
screw you, I'm weird and that's cool!
Yes, exactly. It shows up in different ways, and
it's funny. Sometimes how you see similarities
in people's stories. Whereas for me, I don't
think I really owned the element of being a
rebel until it came to maybe standing up for
people or causes or things like that that I really
believed in. Or pushing against those
