Esther Whitney

What I would like more than anything else as a result of my PhD, is for research about autistic people to be directed by, include and be accessible to autistic people and so I have started to look for people that might be interested in contributing their creative stories.

The first person I spoke to was Esther Whitney following the Play a Part : Beyond Stereotypes conference in September 2012. Esther is currently completely a Masters in Research  in Education exploring the lived experiences of autistic adolescent girls in mainstream education. As part of her plan for her thesis, she created the following art work to express her own lived experiences of being an undiagnosed autistic student in a mainstream school.

Esther Whitney 2021

They say a picture says 1000 words. I often feel that art explains my experiences as a autistic person far better than words ever could and for me 'the artist' I find it a relief to be able to communicate on such a deeper level my experience than by just using words alone. I'm starting to work on my next creative project which is my experience of dehumanisation as an autistic person and reclaiming my autistic empowerment.

She described to me how the walls of the box can go up and down depending on whether the people in her environment are either empowering or disempowering her. For Esther, the walls went up when her attempts to ask for help in school were interpreted as her "being difficult". 

Esther was not diagnosed as autistic whilst at school, despite transferring to a special school. Like many women (or people assigned female at birth), her struggles and difficulties were not seen as indicators of autism until much later. She was 21 when she finally received her diagnosis and in response studied her undergraduate degree in art and design which gave her the opportunity to process this. Creativity provided freedom of expression and gave her a way to communicate the difficulties and past traumas that words could not express. Whilst studying, Esther's sculpture, "A Thimble Full" won the Create!Art for Autism contest and her work was displayed in the Houses of Parliament in 2012.   

Stereotypes and myths about what autism is can prevent access to diagnosis and barriers to support. Esther, like too many other young people, found school incredibly difficult because her unique and individual autistic way of being wasn’t recognised. She didn’t fit what people consider autism to look like. We need to do better; we need to create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to learn, and we need to do that by listening to the autistic person. They are after all, the leading experts in the field, on their own autism and what helps them.