My Next Big Step

Approximately 30 years ago, when I was a little girl, I lost my voice.

I was bullied, ridiculed, left out and generally socially awkward. This resulted in me developing what I now come to know as Selective Mutism.

For most of my life I have in some way been silenced. Whether this is due to my own issues and feeling so alien in the world, that I developed anxiety at 4/5 years old. Whether this was because being female I have had people look down upon me as the inferior sex. Whether this was because being young and inexperienced, people believed I didn’t have anything useful to add to the table. Whether this is a direct result of being misunderstood from actually being autistic, which had never been picked up.

I’m now learning that I am not alien in this world, there are others like me.

I now know being female isn’t the inferior sex, I am just as equal to men.

I might be young and potentially inexperienced, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t got something valuable to say.

I know that the misunderstanding is the lack of awareness in the general population for autism, especially in females.

Now in my 30s, I am unlearning all the negativity I associated with myself, the bad habits and finally coming out of my shell.

I am also speaking up against the inequality and misunderstandings.

One of the reasons why I became an author was because I wanted to get my voice finally heard. I wanted to use the medium of written word, in stories, to get certain topics out there. Including my own story.

But just writing stories is just the stepping stone onto bigger things.

The next stepping stone…

Is becoming a UN Women’s Delegate for the UK!

I’m extremely humbled to be a part of the delegation. To be a part of something as important as gender equality. But I’m also extremely nervous.

But I’m going to continue practicing speaking up, like I have been slowly building up on, and push through these nerves.

I have finally found my voice.

And I’m certainly going to make as much noise as possible!

If you’d like to learn more about my story please see the blog post ‘Why “The Girl Who Whispered?“‘