Here’s a little post I wrote at the end of Autism Awareness month and published on Substack. I’m still trying to figure out where to write blog posts, so I’m constantly hovering between Substack and the website, along with rambling opinion videos on TikTok!
Not so long ago, I reached out to a handful of news websites — and papers too, but in 2026, this format doesn’t feel as relevant as it did in the era of Tintin and Snowy. I wanted to pitch a piece on the need for more neurodivergent representation in fiction, and particularly in YA fiction.
Not many replied, and ultimately, I can’t blame them. They are probably attacked on all sides by pitches on tragic divorce stories, inspiring cake recipes, and whatever other stories that would have been told a million times already. So, my pitch on neurodivergent representation fell at the bottom of already packed mailboxes.
Some replied though. They replied fast, the kind of fast pace every job applicant knows too well. The immediate rejection that screams in imaginary bold letters: I DID NOT CARE ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY READ WHAT YOU SENT.
Similar to the 3-second rule when you drop food on the floor, editors and recruiters have a similar rule. If they engage with anything longer than that, there must be a contamination risk I am unaware of. They’re at risk of looking too much like they’re cognitively engaging, and that would be bad, I guess.
That’s the opposite of Descartes’s “cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). Non cogito, ergo sum?
[Note to self: Stop diverging.]
Nevertheless, the few responses I received echoed each other. Neurodivergent representation? No, that’s too niche.
Niche? Allow me to scream briefly.
There are currently 2.5 million undiagnosed adults in the UK with autism, ADHD, or both, according to Dr. Blandine French (you can check her article on Autistica.org). To put things into perspective, they represent around 3.6% of the population in the United Kingdom. Bear in mind that is only one part of the much more complex neurodivergent population. How are 2.5 million people too niche?
But, what’s a niche after all? If we start looking at the more obvious signs, niche is precisely what neurodivergent individuals are.
They are the permanent recess in the wall of society, the hollow space with no air to fuel the candle of inclusiveness.
We’ve just left the Autism Awareness Month, behind, and yet, I am now more than ever ready to talk about the need for neurodivergent representation in YA fiction on behalf of all the undiagnosed autists who are grinding their teeth every day to malfunction as well as they can in a world that is set on not giving them space.
You may wonder why I want to talk about undiagnosed autists in the context of YA fiction. It all comes down to the development of one’s identity. The identity questions and challenges that young adult readers face are relevant to undiagnosed adults, who masking has deprived of a sense of who they are. But that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, in a gif, if this speaks to you,
In the meantime, I’ll write to you next time.