Talia Grant
Actor
Talia Grant
Actor
As a child, I didn’t know who I was because I didn’t see anyone like me and now I think that there’s a community because people are showing themselves.
It’s just so important, especially for TV and film, to be able to represent people of all backgrounds. When you think of autistic you might just think of a boy like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, but no one really thinks ‘black, autistic girl’. People need to understand that it’s not a niche – there’s someone at home watching it and thinking, “I’m so glad that finally I’m understood and I’m seen and I’m not invisible”. I’m just glad to hopefully be a voice for people.
Just keep going. When you do your best, you can never really fail because you know that you did the best you could. Know that people are out there that want to understand you and there are people that celebrate difference. There are people that want to hear you and would love to hear you. When you’re autistic, you’re nervous because you think, ‘what if they don’t understand me?’, or, ‘what if I tell them that I’m autistic and they don’t want me to work with them?’ Well then, they don’t understand and that’s on them, it’s never on you. You can only just keep going and follow your dreams and it’ll all work out.
Retrieved from Talia Grant's interview with www.autism.org.uk
