5. It’s okay to be autistic! Autism is not sad.

Autism is just a way some brains work. Autistic people have things that are hard for us, like everyone else does. We also have strengths! There are things about autism that make life harder, but that does not mean that autism is sad.

A lot of the things that are hard for autistic people aren’t hard because of autism. They are hard because of other people. For example, people might treat us badly because we are autistic. They might not understand autism, and they might try to keep us separate from non-autistic people. None of this means that autism is bad. It means that other people are being unfair. We need to make the world a better place for autistic people.