📰 Throwback: The Autism Magazine I Made in College

Not all my nostalgia comes from TV shows and pop bands — sometimes it’s the little projects I threw myself into that feel the most special. One of those was the autism magazine I designed back in college, which I called Autzine. (Okay, maybe a slightly cheesy name, but give 17-year-old me a break 🤣).

I can still picture myself sitting at a computer, probably with MSN open in the background, piecing together pages about something that mattered deeply to me. Articles, facts, maybe a few doodles or collages — it wasn’t professional, but it was full of heart. I even remember including an article about mental health, because even then it felt important to show that autism and wellbeing needed to be talked about together.

And here’s the part that blows my mind looking back: the people at my college actually liked Autzine so much they asked me to produce it “for real.” What started as a project suddenly felt like it could be something bigger — something people wanted to read.

At the time, I didn’t think of it as a big deal. It was “just” a college project. But now I can see it was my first real step into advocacy and creativity. Long before I became an NHS Expert by Experience, before I started blogging or writing novels, there I was: a teenager making space for autistic voices on a page — and realising other people cared about that space too.

It reminds me that the threads have always been there — the love of writing, the drive to speak up, the joy of making something that feels like me.

✨ Sometimes the most nostalgic things aren’t the ones we saw on TV, but the things we quietly created ourselves.