Hello folks and welcome to an extra special video post because today the blog turns 1-year-old! I don’t usually wear a tie around the house, but I thought I’d put a bit of effort in! I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the support and engagement I’ve had with the blog. To be honest, it’s been mildly overwhelming but in the best way possible. When I started the blog I planned on forcing my family to read the posts, and that was pretty much all I envisioned. I of course hoped that other people would read it and find it interesting, but I hoped for a couple hundred views, tops. I’m recording this on the 25th May, so 3 days before this video goes up, and as of right now we have 10,196 views!
So, I thought I’d share some statistics with you as well, and the first one I’ve already said: “10,196” views in total, but I can tell you as well that the most viewed post was “I Am A Complete Person” with 2,254 views in total. I have written a grand sum of 49,373 words, which is equivalent to roughly 8.4% of the total length of War And Peace, or equivalent to just shy of 99 copies of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, which sounds more impressive.
The blog has also been viewed across 62 different countries! These countries are: United Kingdom 🇬🇧, United States 🇺🇸, Germany 🇩🇪, Canada 🇨🇦, Australia 🇦🇺, Netherlands 🇳🇱, France 🇫🇷, Sweden 🇸🇪, Norway 🇳🇴, Ireland 🇮🇪, Russia 🇷🇺, India 🇮🇳, New Zealand 🇳🇿, Denmark 🇩🇰, Spain 🇪🇸, Belgium 🇧🇪, Poland 🇵🇱, Brazil 🇧🇷, South Africa 🇿🇦, Portugal 🇵🇹, China 🇨🇳, Italy 🇮🇹, Nigeria 🇳🇬, Chile 🇨🇱, Finland 🇫🇮, Czech Republic 🇨🇿, Kenya 🇰🇪, Mexico 🇲🇽, Turkey 🇹🇷, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Tanzania 🇹🇿, Hungary 🇭🇺, Ukraine 🇺🇦, Nepal 🇳🇵, Austria 🇦🇹, Argentina 🇦🇷, Philippines 🇵🇭, Singapore 🇸🇬, Japan 🇯🇵, Belarus 🇧🇾, Israel 🇮🇱, Lebanon 🇱🇧, Estonia 🇪🇪, Columbia 🇨🇴, Greece 🇬🇷, Iceland 🇮🇸, Slovenia 🇸🇮, Moldova 🇲🇩, Macedonia 🇲🇰, Romania 🇷🇴, Isle of Man 🇮🇲, Malaysia 🇲🇾, Lithuania 🇱🇹, Taiwan 🇹🇼, Cayman Islands 🇰🇾, South Korea 🇰🇷, United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪, Albania 🇦🇱, Malta 🇲🇹, Egypt 🇪🇬, Ecuador 🇪🇨, and bizarrely: the European Union 🇪🇺? I’m not quite sure why it didn’t show up as an individual country, but if someone is sitting in the EU headquarters, reading the blog, then hello, I hope you are enjoying it, and awfully sorry about the whole Brexit mess.
What I love about seeing all the different countries which people are reading from, is the sense of autistic connectedness I feel. I’ve had messages from people in countries all over the world, talking about their autistic experience, and that’s something I didn’t expect but that I love. Out of the countries I just listed, I’ve only been to 9 of them, 10 if we include the EU as a whole. And in addition to that, I’ve had amazing feedback from other autistic people, and that to me is the highest compliment I could ever receive. We all know the saying that if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve only met one autistic person, and so for so many in our community to feel like I have in some way made them feel heard or understood or even just made them smile, there is very little else that can top that feeling.
In terms of what’s coming next, expect the same weekly content, alternating between blog posts and podcast episodes. I’ve got so many ideas and on my morning walks with Riley I usually end up pausing my music so that I can just think about what I want to do next. I’m also working on a couple of new ideas for projects, but I’m sure you can understand that with uni and well, life generally, I don’t want to take on too much and burn out.
I built the blog from scratch, by myself, and while I do all the writing, editing, recording etc., I’ve also had some help from my friend Paula with the social media, so I also want to send a huge, huge thank you to her for everything she does. I also want to thank my brother for making the music you hear at the beginning and end of each podcast episode, as well as all the podcast guests who have to put up with talking to me! Also special thank you to my best friend Soren, and another friend who shall remain nameless, for their support when I was deciding whether or not to launch in the first place. Without those guys I probably wouldn’t have done it.
That’s all I wanted to say. I’m very sorry for the poor camera and microphone quality, I’m using my laptop. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the blog posts and podcast episodes, and please get in touch or leave feedback if that is something you want to do. Bye!
I Don't Look Autistic 