small transgender pride flag attached near the dashboard inside a car, the steering wheel in the foreground and a city street under a cloudy sky visible through the windshield, the flag upright and steady while the vehicle waits at an intersection

i am here

alive
in this body

in a country
trying to erase me

trying to decide
where bodies like mine belong

see me

i know
who i am

i love
myself

fully
today

#transdayofvisibility #queerwriters #AuDHD #autismwhileblack

care moved toward me February 2026

there are moments when the room shifts and you realize something has been holding you all along. this piece begins there.

#actuallyautistic #autismwhileblack #queerwriter #AuDHD #transwriter #disabilityjustice

staying a while lately my body has been shaking in ways i cannot ignore.

i wrote something about what it has been like to live inside a body that is breaking down.

it’s about what it means to keep choosing to stay while the future feels less predictable.

#ActuallyAutistic #AutismWhileBlack #QueerWriter #ChronicIllness #Disability #MentalHealth #Parenting #AuDHD

elm (@autistickynotes) this begins with a tattoo and unfolds into what it means to stay inside a body as time moves. it traces how one choice became a way of holding what arrives. “the rectangle holds all of it. past, pres...

this begins with a tattoo. it follows how a single mark became a way to stay when time wouldn’t slow down.

#actuallyautistic #grief #AuDHD #mentalhealth #embodiment #personalessay #joyisresistance #BIPoC

Rooting for us Four years, two pineapples, and a reminder that everything grows in its own good time.

what grows when you slow down?
a pineapple, yes. but also trust, presence, & a rhythm shared between a parent & child.

a story of joy, tending, & learning to let life unfold.

read it here: autistickynotes.substack.com

#actuallyautistic #parentingjoy #blackjoy #audhd #slowliving

#AutisticMind #NeurodivergentGrief #GriefWork #LoopingThoughts #FeelingInBody #AutisticExperience #MentalHealthAwareness #MentalHealthMatters #EmotionalMemory #PresencePractice #AutisticHealing #NeurodivergentVoices #AuthenticWriting #SubstackReads

Grief Has a Good Memory Sitting with what the mind refuses to release.

read grief has a good memory on substack. for the ones who feel it all.
for those learning not to rush the healing.

this new piece is about the stories that live in the body long after they end.

#actuallyautistic #AuDHD #autism #adhd

elm (@autistickynotes) i wrote this back in September or October, when something small, a handshake, hit my body like a warning. i didn’t write it to explain. i wrote it because i was full. because there’s a kind of anger ...

something small, a handshake, lit up my whole body. not confusion. not envy. just a knowing kind of anger. wrote this in the fall. still feeling it.
#writingcommunity #blackwriters #neurodivergent #autisticwriting #culturalappropriation #art #audhd

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticTruth #NeurodivergentVoices #RelationalCare #TruthTelling #AutisticWriter #DisabilityJustice #SlowDownAndFeel #AutistickyNotes #AuDHD #QueerAutistic #TransAutistic #BlackAutisticLivesMatter

what honesty asks of us truth is a new beginning

honesty shouldn’t feel dangerous. but for many of us who speak plainly, who name what’s real, it often does.
this piece is about what it means to be autistic in a world that rewards politeness over truth and what becomes possible when we choose to slow down and stay real.

elm (@elimose) truth is a kind of care. even when it is uncomfortable. well, especially then. telling the truth of what i feel or what happened is not something i need to apologize for. it never was even though it...

truth is a kind of care. even when it is uncomfortable. well, especially then.

i shared this because it speaks a truth i am learning to live. may it resonate with something true in you too.

#AuDHD #Honesty #Autism #ADHD #Allisticcommunication #neurocomplex #neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic

elm (@elimose) this moment, this hand, reminded me what it means to belong. this reflection moves through mourning, memory, and the quiet power of gratitude.

this piece came from a quiet moment that reminded me how grief and tenderness live side by side. on this day of mourning, i wrote what my body is carrying. it’s up now on Substack.

#AuDHD #actuallyautistic #dayofmourning #gratitude #stay #tendernessisstrength #queervoices #transjoy

Playing human Disclaimer

Some thoughts don’t arrive with answers.

This piece is a trace of my inner weather of what it means to feel deeply, live slowly, and unmask in a world that often misunderstands.
I wrote it to stay present with myself. Maybe it helps you stay, too.

#ItsOkayToNotBeOkay
#AuDHD #autism #depression

The Only Way Is Through Finding love in the light

the only way is through. this is how hidden love finds the sun. through grief, through breath, through small rituals of care.

#TheOnlyWayIsThrough #LoveMadeVisible #AutisticVoice #JoyfulMotherfuckers #TendernessInPractice #AuDHD

For Those Who Never Saw Themselves as Parents On regret, resistance, and discovering a love I could not have imagined

i never dreamed of being a parent. i said yes to it with fear and regret. and still, parenting gave me a love I never thought possible.

#Autism #ADHD #AuDHD #Family #Healing #Love #Parenting #Queer #BIPoC

This is a mural painted on the side of a building. A child, smiling with popsicle dripping down their face, is holding a melting popsicle in one hand and a toy truck in the other. The text says, “Un Verano Sin I.C.E.”

the other night my friend and i stared at this for what felt like hours. holding joy and silence, imagining people not being terrified to exist. a summer without ice indeed.

#meltice #beaconhill #satx #asummerwithoutice

Eating, Trust, and the Work of Believing Notes on family, survival, and still choosing to believe in people

This piece is about eating again, and it is also about survival, family, grief, and the stubborn hope of still believing in people. I am learning to write from that place. I invite you to read, and maybe walk this journey with me.

#AuDHD #writingtoheal #autistic #BIPoC #BLM #transjoyistesistance

Another world is possible Before I began writing here, I gave this speech to youth development professionals.

my first post on Substack feels like opening a door. it’s my voice, unmasked, beginning to imagine out loud.

this is an invitation for you to listen and journey with me, too.

#audhd #adhd #autistic #bipoc #imaginingpossibilities #transjoy #unmasking

85% of Gaza’s population have entered the "fifth stage" of malnutrition — the most critical and dangerous phase, which is often irreversible even if food becomes available in the future.

I think this is the most horrifying post I have ever read.

Abe Louise Young: “Who” by Poem-a-Day

@abelouise.bsky.social has the feature, poem-a-day, on the Academy of American Poets! It is beautiful.

Here is a link to her reading it: megaphone.link/POETS2185059...

#poemaday #abelouiseyoung #queerartists

call your representatives. have hope that your call will do something. this is absolutely catastrophic. people will die.

#5callsapp #savemedicaid

Murmuration A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena. Facebook: Islands And Rivers For licensing information contact…

start it around 22 sec. when i get lost inside myself, i watch this on repeat. we live in a world that is so beautiful. we just need to pause and look.

#blm #transjoyisresistance #mdd #cptsd #siponjoy

"the stars have time to burn / while winking at us" The Ball

my heart hurts.

Beverly on Substack Powerful! Perfectly articulated. This man is to be appluaded.

More of this

Shoutout to Iberville Parish having a BALL lmaoooooooooooo

ancestors are celebrating today!

#blacklivesmatter #fafo

Today is the day of the Nakba, the beginning of the genocide and displacement of the Palestinians.

The Nakba never ended. It’s been 77 years of ongoing Nakba.

…cuts on that scale would “reduce the number of people with health insurance by at least 8.6 million” across America #powertothepeople #savemedicaid

Calling GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn about Medicaid Call 202-224-3121 and demand answers from your reps!

$880 billion cut to medicaid. Call your representatives. Find out if they know what the cut to this program means for communities. From this video, doesn’t seem like Blackburn does. #savemedicaid #5calls #callyourrepresentatives

“It’s no wonder people died there. The wonder is people survived there”