Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels

I loved this book. This is so well written and in such an easy to read style, that you're drawn in like a close friend from the start and all Sara's hurt and misunderstandings and love and mega interests and her humour and wonderful personality are shared with you as though she's telling you directly. I think this is a valuable work because we hear so much about autism from non-autistic people and we don't realise how many autistic people are not the stereotypes and are often the people we thought were a little different but we never stopped to wonder why. I am glad there are more diagnoses and more people, like Sara, being open and honest and explaining what life was and is like for her. I'm not autistic so this was a really great way for me to understand more and to be more accepting. I'm looking forward to more work from the author as surely this can't be the one and only book she produces.

Many might not know Sara's contribution to recent satirical comedy programmes on TV and the radio.Still, as a writer with flair and a good sense of humour, her memoir discloses what it was like for her to grow up without the diagnosis of Autism. And this tale is one I much sympathise with after getting diagnosed at a similar point in my life, albeit not having a wholly mirrored life.As she correctly says in the introduction to this memoir, if you know one autistic person, you know one autistic person. That means we may peer through life's lenses with the same neurodiversity condition, but we may respond to the senses differently.Despite having a padded bumpy ride which has left her with some metaphorical bruises and scars, she has managed to come through the first three decades of life largely unscathed.The memoir provides a good insight into the autistic mindset. However, it will not answer how to support, remedy, or deal with an autistic individual feeling overwhelmed with different life experiences.Worth a read, especially to those who feel misjudged or do not feel they fit the expectations of others.Thank you, Sara, for your continued advocating for better social justice and determination to put a name to what it is like growing up Autistic but not knowing you are.

Thanks Sara for having shared a honest description of how it was for you. A description "to the point". I found it refreshing, like a shower after a hot and sweaty day.Only in the end I realised why I liked it so much. Because (spoiler alert!) being autistic is not having a superpower or a life-long affliction. It is accepting who you are and being accepted (or, sadly, not) for who you are. We should make a world where this acceptance is obvious, with or without labels.

I’m so pleased I bought this book! I read pieces of myself amongst its pages, which has left me feeling more understood and happy than ever. It’s definitely worth a read.

An excellent, hilarious (Sara writes jokes for a living, after all), thou often distressing-to-read, account of bewildering attempts to be something-she's-not, before starting to better understand who she is. Really helpful book if trying to understand autism in yourself or others

I LOVED this book. It was one of those books that I picked up every spare minute that I had because I wanted to read more.I'm not sure what I was expecting this book to be like but it exceeded any ideas that I had. It is subtle in how it tells the story, it reads like a normal autobiography but as the book progresses through Sara's life you begin to see the devastating impact that her (at this point undiagnosed) Autism had on every aspect of her life from friendships, relationships, holding down jobs, autistic burnout to her dreams of Motherhood.Sara's writing is beautiful, it is engaging, warm and enjoyable to read. It's well-edited and there were never parts of the book that dragged, it maintained a fast pace throughout. I laughed along with Sara and I also sobbed at her story, it is rare for a book to affect me so emotionally. I liked how she wrote that she doesn't consider Autism an affliction or a super-power it is simply part of who she is.It's an eye-opening read and it stayed with me long after I'd finished reading. One criticism I had is that the book only briefly covers Sara's life after she is diagnosed with Autism and begins to come to terms with the diagnosis, I'd have liked a little bit more detail about how the diagnosis has positively (or negatively) affected her life, maybe a second book could be written as I would certainly like to read it.I was drawn to this book as I wanted to know more about Autism in females and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain further insight in to Autism.

There is simply nothing as powerful as authentic autistic voices articulating their experiences in a way that shines a light on such a stigmatised, stereotyped, misunderstood identity. Sara's book takes us on a journey through all those incorrect labels and stereotyping tropes that are so frequently lumped onto undiagnosed autistic people. Especially, but not only, women.Having worked with autistic adults for 2 decades, and having an autistic family, as well as self-identifying as autistic myself, so much of Sara's book resonated with me. The confusion and exhaustion of trying to fold into a misaligned shape in order to fit in with others, the furious attempts to Be Normal, the cruelty (intentional and unintentional) of others, the importance of the people who understand - it's all there.It's also hilariously funny, a deep dive back into the nineties, a wondrous glimpse at the glory of a mind that makes a whole different set of connections. It smashes so many myths about autism and autistic people that it should be required reading. It teaches without dictating and reveals much about the value of different neurotypes. It's utterly brilliant and I can't recommend it highly enough.