+

autism

@magicwiththomas/TikTok

Not so evil after all

Disneyland is coined “the happiest place on Earth” thanks in no small part to people who work there—particularly the performers. Sure, the rides are fun, but a lot of the magic comes from being able to interact with real life versions of characters we’ve fallen in love with from the movies.

That’s why people are hailing the Evil Queen, who had a very special encounter with an autistic teen boy, as the park’s true hero. She is one of many performers going out of their way to make sure everyone gets to be part of the fun, reminding us of what makes Disney so special in the first place.

A now-viral TikTok video shows the Evil (or maybe not-so-evil) Queen approach 15-year-old Thomas to offer a feel of her soft cape.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Woman rents out her 'handy' husband for $45 an hour and business is booming

The flexible schedule helps them take care of their autistic children.

via Pixabay

Everyone needs a handyman.

It’s wonderful to have a spouse who's handy. Every homeowner knows that there's always something that needs to be fixed or replaced. Having a handy spouse makes it a lot easier to get things done while saving the family a whole lot of money.

Laura Young took things a step further and is using her handy husband, James, to make the family more money.

South West News Service reports that she had a brilliant idea after listening to a podcast about a man who makes a living putting together ready-to-assemble furniture. Why not lend her husband out to other people to do odd jobs?

"He's good at everything around the house and garden, so I thought why not put those skills to use and hire him out?" Laura told SWSN.

Laura made a Facebook post joking about her husband's incredible skills as a handyman and, surprisingly, people started booking him for jobs. James booked so many gigs that he was able to drop his job working in a warehouse and gain greater flexibility to help Laura raise their three kids, two of which are diagnosed autistic and the other requires speech and language therapy.

"It allows us to book jobs and estimates around appointments, school runs, without having to clear it with an employer first, risking them saying 'no' or being guilt-tripped, and feeling you’re letting a team down," Laura told Upworthy.

Keep ReadingShow less

This article originally appeared on 12.07.17


George Yionoulis is pretty much your typical 9-year-old.

The fourth-grader from Raleigh, North Carolina, loves "Harry Potter," making art, and eating tacos.

Oh, and he loooooooves dancing. The kid has some serious moves.

Keep ReadingShow less

Trent takes requests for animal drawings and creates them with no mistakes.

Some people are born with a knack or natural talent for certain things, from sports to music to math to art. At some point, it becomes hard to differentiate between people who are highly trained and people who are naturally gifted, but occasionally a person's innate abilities are abundantly clear.

Such is the case with Trent, a 24-year-old artist who has gathered a huge following with his on-request animal mash-up drawings. Trent has over a million followers on TikTok. He also has level 3 autism, which impacts his ability to communicate and necessitates help and support with day-to-day functioning. Trent's parents are his caregivers, and they use TikTok to help Trent share his art, champion his work and answer people's questions about autism.

Keep ReadingShow less