The National Autistic Society has unveiled a campaign to spotlight the lives of autistic women and non-binary people to improve the understanding of autism.
Produced by creative agency Ogilvy Health and world renowned photographer Rankin and his team, the ‘Now I Know’ campaign looks at autism through the lens of personal experience.
The social media initiative, led by Rankin’s Alex Heron, an autistic photographer, aims to increase awareness of late diagnosis and encourage others to share their story.
According to the society, gender stereotypes and a lack of understanding often mean that autistic women and non-binary people can be overlooked and live without a diagnosis late in life, which can reportedly have severe negative impacts on mental and physical health. Research points to the numbers of autistic men and women being more equal than previously thought, with the most up to date estimated ratio of autistic men to women being 3:1.
The campaign was inspired by the words of Dawn Mills who was diagnosed at the age of 56 and features in the campaign. She said: “I always knew who I was, now I know why I am.”
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The series of images shot by Alex Heron reflect each individual’s personalities and interests. Photography sessions were set up with a shutter release cable so that each person could be in control of capturing their own image.
“I get really emotional when I think about working on this project,” Heron said.
“When I grew up and I was diagnosed, I was told by my GP not to tell anyone because I’d never get employed and I’d never have a relationship or anything, so I kept it a secret. I just never want any kid to feel how I felt. Anything I can do that can makes kids or people going through a diagnosis feel seen, and see that actually there is employment, there’s a space for everybody and you just need to find that space.”
The social media campaign will go live across all platforms nationwide from this week.
Rankin added: “One of the brilliant things about the way that Alex has used her photography is by bringing subjects in and collaborating with them to make something that makes them feel seen and understood and I think that’s an incredibly important thing to do with photography. It’s the power of photography.”
Ogilvy Health creative team, Tamsin Wills and Lydia Rylance Murdoch, have proclaimed that conversations around neurodiversity in women and non-binary people “are just beginning.”
“There is still much that is not spoken about and many people who never get to see their experiences represented,” they added.
“We all know that representation is important in transforming culture. This is a campaign that has been needed for a long time. Involving those it is talking about, and to, every step of the way. Campaigns love to talk about diversity and authenticity but don’t always follow it through in action. We wanted to make sure that this did.”
