It’s a Neurodiverse World: Stories from Neurodivergent People

This symposium includes twelve personal narratives from contributors who identified their lived experiences as falling within the umbrella of neurodivergence, as well as four other stories that appear in the online supplement. Four commentaries on these narratives are also included, authored by scholars in anthropology, bioethics, psychiatric disability, and who have lived experience of neurodivergence or of parenting neurodivergent children. The goal of this symposium issue is to call attention to our neurodiverse world, i.e., the range of different ways that human minds and brains work.The stories and commentaries introduce vocabulary and themes relevant to neurodivergent experiences, highlighting experiences of difference, diagnostic journeys in childhood and adulthood, experiences of (in)visibility and masking neurodivergence, the role of labels, as well as the experiences of learning and growth. The commentaries highlight how some stories are absent, cautioning us that the world is far more neurodiverse than this (or likely any) collection of essays can represent.