Karawynn Long is an American writer and proofreader living in Mexico. Now 52, she had what she describes as her ‘Autism epiphany’ just over three years ago, a few months before her fiftieth birthday. She is self identified as autistic, partly due to formal assessments not being available in the Mexican system, and difficult and expensive to obtain in the American one. Karawynn moved to Mexico almost 10 years ago for economic reasons, and unlike many autistic people who find living in other...

Mandy Williams is a Volunteer Coordinator with Scottish Women’s Autism and a competitive athlete. Originally from Manchester in the UK, she now lives in Stirling in Scotland. She was diagnosed autistic two years ago, aged 45. She is passionate about exercise, and her enthusiasm for this special interest shines out. She has achieved a bronze medal in mountain running, and recently qualified for the World Championship Hyrox event, a global fitness race. I’m delighted to share my conversation...

Fern Brady is a comedian and writer born and raised in Bathgate in Scotland. Now in her 30s, she lives in London with her partner.  Fern was a guest on the podcast back in the spring of 2021, soon after she was diagnosed autistic. Since then, she taken a deep dive into learning more about autism, toured her standup show Autistic Bikini Queen, been a contestant on Channel 4’s TaskMaster… and written a book, Strong Female Character, which comes out in February 2023.  I was lucky enough to get...

Angela Lauria is a CEO and author from Washington DC, USA. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic 10 years ago, and initially underwent a form of the controversial ABA therapy in an effort to ‘fix’ the things about her that she had always felt were wrong. One burnout, some autism-positive therapy and ten years of processing later, she was able to fully accept and embrace her own autistic identity, and wider autistic culture.  Realising she didn’t fit into traditional workplaces, Angela started...

Déa Neile-Hopton is a basketmaker and artist. She is of mixed Jamaican and English heritage and grew up in the 1970s and 80s in York, England. Now 47, she lives in Whitland in Wales, with her partner and three neurodivergent children. She is self diagnosed autistic and was diagnosed ADHD in 2021. She has a passion for arts and crafts, and for teaching circus skills, but has struggled to find a place in the world of work, finding job seeking and workplaces traumatic and experiencing repeated...

Kelly McCartney is a music journalist from Rhode Island, USA. She is 52 and self-diagnosed as autistic in April of 2022. She has turned a life-long special interest in music into an incredibly varied, 30-year career in almost every area of the music industry, including interning at Entertainment Tonight, working as personal assistant to various well known musicians, project managing independent artists, and hosting music podcasts and radio shows, including Record Bin Radio on Apple Music. ...

Audrey Mitchell is a counsellor with a private practise in Idaho, USA. She was diagnosed autistic in 2020, around the same time as her teenage daughter, and the last two years have been a time of processing and learning to accept herself as she is, and unmask in both her personal and professional lives. I first interviewed her two years ago, for the very first season of SquarePeg. Since that interview was recorded she has finished writing her first, soon-to-be-published memoir, Polishing...

Jacqui O’Riordan is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner from Harrogate, North Yorkshire in the UK. She has worked as a mental health nurse for almost 20 years, including working in a secure unit with chronically ill patients. She has worked in crisis assessment with Accident and Emergency and the Police since 2008.  Now 49, Jacqui was diagnosed as autistic and ADHD a year ago, and her two children are also autistic. Since learning more about autism, she has begun to question the lack of proper...

Alexis Quinn is a mother, author, educator and former teacher who spent three and a half years in inpatient services following a mental health breakdown in her mid twenties. 14 months into this period, aged 27, she was diagnosed autistic by chance, when an Autism Psychiatric Specialist happened to witness one of her meltdowns.  I first discovered Alexis on Twitter, and I was compelled to read her first devastating but incredible first book, Unbroken, which tells the story of her breakdown,...

Sanna Östergren is a writer and literary translator from Sweden. She lives in the countryside with her husband and their two-year-old son, where she also runs a small independent publishing company.  She realised she was autistic about a year ago, when the overwhelm of new motherhood started turning her life-long shutdowns into meltdowns, and she was diagnosed in April this year, aged 32. When we recorded this episode she was on a break from work, to allow her to focus on parenting,...

Janet Murray is a content strategist who lives near London in the UK. She was recently diagnosed autistic, after first getting a diagnosis of ADHD in 2020. A former journalist and PR coach, Janet has written for many national publications, is the host of the Courageous Content podcast and founder of the Courageous Content Live Event  - an annual content marketing event for creative businesses/brands - and is also a keynote speaker who has spoken on big stages all over the world.  She says...

Janelle Johnson is an Inclusion Strategist, therapist and researcher from North Carolina, USA. She is self diagnosed and her son is also autistic. She has recently taken a step back from practising as a therapist to focus on her research as a PhD student and graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University’s College of Education. Her work explores development for students with invisible disabilities, the intersection of mental health and other marginalised identities, and...

D.L. Mayfield is a freelance writer from Portland, USA. She has written for Christian publications in the US for over 10 years, and is the author of several books, the latest of which, Unruly Saint, explores the life and work of the late American journalist, social activist and anarchist Catholic Dorothy Day. D.L. herself grew up highly religious in an evangelical family in the US. Now in her late 30s, she is currently in the process of being assessed for autism, after she reached out to an...

My guest this week is Dr Kate Tomas, a Spiritual Mentor who lives in mid Wales in the UK. Kate developed powerful psychic abilities from an early age, and by 22 had built a thriving international practice as a witch, healer and psychic for individuals, multinational brands, governments and CEOs. She holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Theology from the University of Oxford, and is a world expert in Mysticism and Catholic women mystics. In 2018 she started a program called The Spiritual Life...

Aisha Edwards is a somatic trauma therapist, podcaster and writer from Vancouver, Washington, USA, and was diagnosed autistic last year, aged 39. Somatic trauma therapy is a body-centred approach to treating post-traumatic stress disorder that rather than focusing only on thoughts or emotions associated with a traumatic event, expands to include the natural bodily responses. I’m delighted to bring you this special bonus episode of the Squarepeg Podcast. This was recorded as a collaboration...

**If the last 7 minutes of this recording is missing in Apple Podcasts, you can hear the last part on my website or on Spotify** Diane J Wright is an autistic advocate and the founder of Autastic, an online community that aims to help late diagnosed autistic adults, particularly those from minority communities, and is the only resource of its size founded by a woman of colour.  Diane was diagnosed autistic in her early 40s. Her career has been in the entertainment industry, and she now...

Claire Gardener is a homeopath and primary school teacher in London in the UK. She is 45 and self diagnosed as autistic five years ago, after experiencing burnout in her teaching role.  A special interest in children’s literature lead to her first career in book editing, which came to an end as a result of workplace bullying. Since her burnout, she has trained in homeopathy, and continues to work part time as a teacher. Her specialism as a homeopath is in working with other late-diagnosed...

Alma is an unemployed forager, food designer, artist, craftswoman and permaculture gardener from the Netherlands. She was diagnosed autistic in 2019 after self identifying the year before; she has also since been diagnosed with ADHD. When her then undiagnosed autistic and ADHD traits meant that she wasn’t able to finish her degree, she was offered a management position at the student café she had worked at while at university, staying there until she suffered a burnout in 2016 and found...

Cloie Parfitt is a psychotherapist, originally from Tennessee in the United States, now living in Norwich in the UK. A former nurse, she switched to psychotherapy when she realised that she found the hospital environment and long shifts too much of a sensory challenge.  She now works with many neurodivergent clients, and is currently undertaking a professional doctorate in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh, where she works collaboratively with autistic women to...

Nadia Dillon is a software engineer and entrepreneur from London in the UK. Diagnosed autistic at 27, after experiencing a burnout, she is now 30, and her brilliantly insightful - and beautiful - Instagram account about her post-diagnosis journey has grown to over 25K followers (you may know her by her Instagram handle, @autisticblackgirl). She started her Instagram as an outlet to express her frustrations with navigating a neurotypical world, and she is also keen to highlight the particular...

Elizabeth Williams is an acupuncturist from South Carolina, USA. She is 43 and was diagnosed autistic just a few months ago, in February this year. Like me, she started out her career as a teacher, before switching to acupuncture, which she says is a much better fit for her. Since her career change she has been on a journey of self discovery, exploring everything she could find about personality theories and physical and mental health. But she says that it wasn’t until she figured out she’s...

Solgunn is a life coach from Oslo in Norway. She is 45 and was diagnosed autistic very recently, in April, following her husband's diagnosis last year. She has spent most of her working life in IT, web design, project management and consultancy, but after an unusual adverse reaction to medical treatment, which she believes is linked to her autistic physiology, she found herself suffering from ME and unable to work. She now works part time as a coach, doing as much as her energy levels...

Dr Vanissar Tarakali is a Somatic and Intuitive Trauma Coach from British Columbia in Canada. She was diagnosed in 2017, when she was in her mid 50s. She describes herself as ‘a queer autistic mystic misfit’, and says she loves to work with people who embody contradictions of identity and community. She has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and she offers coaching to transform trauma and sustain social change, integrating somatics, energy medicine, bodywork, neurodivergent wisdom, social justice...

Heather Peak is an artist who lives near Hay on Wye in the UK. She came from a working class background, and was discouraged from making a career as an artist, but decided to go to art school in Brighton where she found a place she finally felt she fit. Now 48, she has established an art practice over the past two decades that combines art, architecture, theatre and social practice. She is co-director of Studio Morison along with  Ivan Morison, creating work that is focused on human spaces...

Aishah-Nyeta is an advocate for climate, race, and disability justice from Virginia in the USA. She says she grew up feeling ‘stupid’ and different from her peers due to her dyscalculia and the social challenges of her undiagnosed autism.  Now 25, she was diagnosed autistic in 2020, when she began using her Instagram account to educate her friends and community – and the wider world – about autism and her particular experience as a Black autistic woman. She recently graduated with a BA in...