The Squarepeg Podcast

Gemma Gray is a strategic marketing consultant from Edinburgh in Scotland. She left her long-term role following a burnout two years ago and became self-employed. She is a parent to an autistic daughter, and was diagnosed herself in March this year, aged 46. Still in the early days of her diagnosis, she says she is unravelling being a people-pleasing professional masker with chronic low self estee...

Naomi Ghafoor is a mental health activist who has spent over a decade battling the mental healthcare system and dealing with misdiagnoses, negligence and systemic abuse, which recently led to her suing her NHS mental health trust earlier this year.  Now 26, she works as a Lived Experience Leadership Officer for a mental health charity in London, UK and is passionate about sharing her experiences a...

Dr Alexandra Johnston is an academic and social anthropologist from Melbourne, Australia. Now 49, she was diagnosed in March 2023. She lives with her wife, Cherie, who she describes as the first person she ever truly unmasked with.   She has several degrees, including a Masters and PhD in Psychology, and her special interests include writing, writing and… writing! So much so, that she self-diagnos...

Dr Megan Anna Neff is a neurodivergent Clinical Psychologist from Portland, Oregon, in the USA. She has a small private practice specialising in neurodivergent-affirming therapy and is the founder of Neurodivergent Insights, where she creates education and wellness resources for neurodivergent adults. She is also co-host of the Divergent Conversations podcast.  Dr Neff is dedicated to educating th...

Livia Sara is an eating disorder survivor, mental health coach, autism advocate and author from the Netherlands. ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** Diagnosed autistic at 20, she now helps other neurodivergent people recover from disordered eating through learning to embrace their unique traits.  She takes a holistic approach to health and healing,...

Gem Kennedy is a Coach and podcaster from Essex in the UK. They are non-binary and queer, and self identified as autistic and ADHD last year, at 35.  ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** They are a Transformational Coach, facilitator and advocate, supporting neurodivergent and queer folk, present a podcast called Queers & Co., and are also co-parent...

Kirstie Pickles is an equine vet, academic, mum and mental health advocate from Derbyshire in the UK. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic at 47, following her daughter's diagnosis. She is passionate about sharing her story and raising the awareness of neurodiversity to allow for better self-advocacy and reduce the stigma associated with autism, and is currently researching autism within her profess...

Maisie Soetantyo is the founder of a nonprofit with a mission to improve employment prospects for autistic jobseekers and aspiring business owners. Now an openly autistic advocate and inclusivity trainer, she has been working with neurodivergent people since her undergraduate studies in 1991, but it would be many years before some of her clients started suggesting that she might be autistic, too....

Laura Richmond is a writer and researcher from Southampton in the UK. Now 35, she was diagnosed autistic last year. She had an extremely difficult road to diagnosis. Social and emotional struggles in childhood led to her being in and out of the psychiatric system for 15 years, misdiagnosed and spending time in various psychiatric hospitals.  The turning point came when her son was born: after a tr...

Rosie Smith is the owner of a non-profit radical bookshop in Canton in Cardiff, just a couple of miles from where I live.  Now 32, she grew up just outside Cardiff with her mum and sister. Leaving school at 16 due to anxiety, eating disorders and mental health issues, she found her people in music, joining bands and doing various different jobs until she decided to open the bookshop in 2019, after...

Kay Louise Aldred is a writer, facilitator, teacher, mentor, and resource creator from North Yorkshire in the UK. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic quite recently, last November. A former teacher, just like me she suffered burnout, left her career and became self employed before discovering her autism. Now she and her husband are co-authoring a book, Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Le...

Rosie Weldon is a Senior Financial Analyst and author whose memoir, 'My Autistic Fight Song', tells the story of how she fought to get her accountancy degree and find her place in the world of work, despite her struggles with mental and physical health and the challenges that come with being autistic. Now 31, she was diagnosed aged 25. Since graduating from Chester University - where she received...

Martine van Bijlert is a writer and researcher from the Netherlands. Now 52, she grew up in Iran and worked in places like Kabul, Grozny and Tehran as an aid worker, diplomat and researcher. She now divides her time between her own creative projects and her work for the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based think tank she founded with friends.  She is self-identified autistic and ADHD, and s...

Naomi Clarke is a freelance writer, community mentor, fundraiser and Human Design reader.  She self diagnosed as autistic around two years ago, but due to inequality in the medical system has so far not been able to get a formal diagnosis.  She describes herself as an autistic, queer, mixed race person with two children (one of her sons was diagnosed autistic 5 years ago). She wears a lot of hats...

Ebonie Allard is an award-winning International Master Coach, an author, and an artist. Now in her early 40s, she was mostly raised in the UK, but before she was seven years old she had lived in a house truck, on a commune, in France, New Zealand, Ireland, and England. She now lives in Spain. She says that she has never had a 'proper job' - she's been self-employed, a freelancer, a business owner...

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 almo...

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...

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.  ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** 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 standu...

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...

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. ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** She has a passion...

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 ar...

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 inter...

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...

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...

Sanna Östergren is a writer and literary translator from Sweden. She lives in the c ountryside 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...