Frankly, it’s difficult to watch the first third of Amanda Bagg’s video about her autistic way of thinking. Then the computer-generated voice kicks in, speaking the words she has typed:
David Wolman discusses The Truth About Autism:
The YouTube post, she says, was a political statement, designed to call attention to people’s tendency to underestimate autistics. It wasn’t her first video post, but this one took off. “When the number of viewers began to climb, I got scared out of my mind,” Baggs says. As the hit count neared 100,000, her blog was flooded. At 200,000, scientists were inviting her to visit their labs. By 300,000, the TV people came calling, hearts warmed by the story of a young woman’s fiery spirit and the rare glimpse into what has long been regarded as the solitary imprisonment of the autistic mind. “I’ve said a million times that I’m not trapped in my own world,’” Baggs says. “Yet what do most of these news stories lead with? Saying exactly that.”