.jpg)
As someone who falls on the spectrum, Madi Mai highlights how important it is for her to raise awareness about mental health and learning difficulties. These things are more openly discussed in today’s society, yet still so far from being normalised.
Madi admits she was bullied at school and struggled socially for some time. “I was bullied a lot because I didn’t act how everyone else did. I found it hard to communicate things and really had to teach myself how to function.”
People with ASD are born with it and their problems usually begin in the first couple of years of life. It’s common to have trouble with communicating and relating to others. As this was something Madi grew aware of, she worked on her social skills and ways of expression. “I developed this need to express myself creatively through art, fashion, makeup, etc.”
She goes on to explain how autism allows her to hyper fixate, which means she gains a greater passion for the things she loves. Madi also says that: “I’m quite good at maintaining friendships because I see them as special. I’m very aware.”
Her song ‘Letter from Louise’ was inspired by a series of letters Madi and her friends exchanged between themselves during the first lockdown. The song is based on long distance relationships and maintaining them without access to social media and all these things we’ve grown such a dependency for in communicating.
The girls would put a lot of thought into the contents of their ‘love letters’ and a tremendous effort into the physical appearance. The letters would be sprayed with perfume, include dried flowers and were covered in tea bag stains to make them appear brown and old.
Madi outlines that “my friends and I became even closer because of this” and how important maintaining friendships is to her. The letters helped to escape the demotivating bubble created by lockdown and were discovered to be a great preservation for the girl’s mental states.
Madi encourage her followers to educate themselves by reposting information on her Instagram stories. Throughout the interview she outlined how harmful it is when people act surprised or make certain remarks: such as ‘but you don’t look autistic’.
“Autism can look like anything. It doesn’t have to be this strange thing you’ve come up with in your head… these sort of things should be normalised more. Ok – you’ve got a learning difficulty – it’s not a big deal! It doesn’t look like any specific thing.”
It’s important for people to educate themselves and those around them to better everyone’s understanding. Instinctive Behaviour have begun to reach out to charities to support with learning difficulties – But this is only the beginning.
Here’s how to do it:
Head to your Members Page
Search for the member you want to make a writer
Click on the member’s profile
Click the 3 dot icon ( ⠇) next to the Follow button
Select Set as Writer.