08/12/2026
It is with extreme sadness, rage and pain that we are forced to announce that we will be suspending our inclusive book donations.
After years of donating over 1,400 inclusive books with Autistic characters and themes to Title I schools and book deserts, we are unable to continue to burden the extreme cost on our own.
There are several reasons why this is happening. Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to secure a grant to continue this work. We rely on individual donors and the money has run too low to keep going.
To compound this hardship, as some of you know, we lost almost half of our inventory including our items needed for our festival this weekend to theft. The responsible parties are refusing to make it right.
We must now choose between our festival and our book drive. No one else can hold a festival like ours - it is designed completely by Autistic adults with lived experience and extensive expertise. Our event is entirely sensory-friendly and inclusive, as well as free. It is the only event many of us are able to attend all year. Neurodiversity Pride Day is too big and too important to lose.
I have no choice but to halt the inclusive book donations indefinitely.
These kids need those books. Iāve seen the looks on their faces when they finally see a character just like themselves in the pages. Denying them that representation is cruel.
By not giving them representative texts, we are actively hurting our Autistic children.
There is no cure for apathy. If we as a city do not band together to provide these books, we are signaling to our children that we donāt care. We are saying that their identities - their very Neurotypes - are inconsequential if not downright wrong.
We are up against some of the most powerful people on Earth - to fight this narrative we need knowledge and facts, the kind that can only come from inclusive books of lived experience.
Our book drive may be ending, but our dedication is not. Nor are we content to allow a city we served so faithfully to fail our Autistic children so profoundly.
I want to speak directly to the people who robbed us: you have no idea the irreparable harm you have caused the Autism community. If you have any honor or sense of morality, you will return the equipment and other items you stole from us.
To the parties responsible who refuse to make this right, shame on you. Our Autistic children weep while you point fingers and blame the victim. I hope your children do not suffer the same fate as ours.
To everyone who did donate books, we thank you purely and wholly for your selflessness and for doing the right thing when faced with inequality.
To the children we serve, there is no excuse for the behavior of our city. As grownups, we are supposed to do better and bring about a kinder world for you. Every single one of us is now failing you and we are so very sorry. I tried my very hardest to give you what I did not have as an Autistic child - belonging, validation and radical acceptance through the pages of inclusive books. It meant the world to me to be able to gift those books.
My heart is broken. We are all devastated. For the first time in my life, Iām ashamed to be a Charlottean. If we canāt protect our own children from hate and ignorance, there is no hope for our city.
We are, still, in your service,
Autistic Youth International
