Aimee Shepherd: Masked

As a doctoral student currently in her second year, my ideas for the research project have travelled from the importance of individuality during the autism diagnosis process, to the awareness of an autistic individual’s personal traits and interests. My ideas were around the importance of the time after diagnosis, and how society and the diagnosis system could adapt. I thought that by creating a comic book about such things could offer a great tool for self-expression, as well as increasing awareness and acceptance of the neurodivergent community.  

As I delved deeper into my own autism and experiences through my choices of methodology (Autoethnography and Constructivist Grounded Theory), I found that empathy in graphic narratives could provide awareness of an equally important topic: the experiences of late diagnosed adults before they received their diagnosis.  

In 2019 I was diagnosed with Autism, and this brought about a lot of changes for me. Specifically, it changed how I viewed myself. I thought about every experience I have ever had with a lover, family member, stranger, friend, at school and in past employment and realised that if I’d been diagnosed earlier perhaps my life would have been different. Maybe, I wouldn’t have experienced the trauma that I had or, at the very least, been more aware of it and acted before it had been too late. Despite the uncomfortable and awkward interactions with people who stare at you and ask you to perform tasks that make you feel a bit like a monkey during the diagnosis process, diagnosis of autism is an important part of accepting and understanding yourself even if you are self-diagnosed.  

In my graphic narrative, or memoir, I will be talking about and drawing my life before my diagnosis to help readers empathise the importance of fully understanding oneself. We are not at fault for the trauma that happens to us from the hands of others, but perhaps we can see the red flags a little sooner, talk to someone, or leave a situation before it gets worse. My hope is also that the graphic novel will help others have greater empathy for the neurodivergent community, helping them recognise moments when they might be able to help those like me in similar situations.  

The research gathered will inform the design of the graphic novel and the first round of data gathered through a survey has already highlighted the importance of world building and immersion. Subsequent data gathering will be conducted through interviews to explore the impact of empathetic characteristics in comics that the autistic participants read. Artwork that I create in response to the first round of data shall be supplied to interviewees for feedback; building upon the information captured in the first survey. I am hoping, at the end of the research process, that I will have created a graphic memoir that highlights the challenges, and traumas, of life before diagnosis, and a thesis which explores the importance of empathetic characteristics of graphic narratives touching on narrative theory, comic studies, and feminist theory.