Tania Marshall, Australia – is the author of the #1 Best Selling book “I am Aspiengirl: Aspergers, Autism and the young Female Profile” on the Amazon store. Tania has over 20 years’ experience in the field of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and she has worked on a regular basis with women and girls who have Asperger’s Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. This is her first book in the Aspiengirl Book Series and more information can be found on her website at www.aspiengirl.com
This is part 2 of our interview with Tania. Part 1 can be read here.
How many books will be in the series?
“When I started writing I never planned on just writing one book. I currently have four books, of which one is released and the other 3 are being written and are available for pre-order at www.aspiengirl.com There is such a lack of resources in this area and I have about 20 books in my head. Time will tell exactly how many are in the series.”
What feedback/reception have you had from women and professionals in the autism community?
“The feedback and reception I have received has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve had professionals contact me saying they have started using the book with their female clients to either explain the diagnosis, discuss particular traits, talk to other family members or the client’s teacher. I’ve had individuals email me telling me that the book has literally saved their life because they thought they were “crazy”, “mad”, a “screw-up”, “dumb”, or worse, you get the picture. Just recently, an adult woman contacted me saying that she came across the book in an unusual circumstance. She was writing her suicide note, when she was interrupted by the mailman, who delivered her my book, which was sent to her by a friend. She now understood her life up until that point, finding answers to her questions, and being validatied. She said it was though I had walked through her head. And so, for me her email was proof to me that my book has done it’s job. I also had a special needs coordinator contact me saying he put a copy on his shelf in his class and he said he watched children go up and take the book and look through the pictures and he said they had conversations about acceptance, diversity and tolerance, which I think is fantastic.”
The book is visually stunning. Who came up with the design?
“Thank-you. I came up with the design. As I mentioned before the book was in my head. I knew how it was going to look. I made up montages and samples or found ideas of what I wanted it to look like and then an experienced graphic designer made the magic happen. He did a fantastic job. I sent him a gratis hardcover copy for his portfolio. I think he will be doing the I Am AspienWoman book, which is in a similar format.”
It is a book that can be dipped in and out of, was this a conscious decision when writing the book?
“Yes, it was. Initially I saw the finished product in my head. I knew I wanted it to be a coffee-table-like book. It wasn’t one of those books that was going to be put on the bookshelf and/or read once. It is a book that is written in a way that it gets picked up a lot over a period of time as a resource to help explain certain characteristics to the reader and/or to other family members, teachers, school staff and/orprofessionals. I’ve had readers tell me the book explains what they have always wanted to explain to their family members.”
Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
“I would like the readers to know about a movement I have started called The AspienGirl Project. This Project was created as a movement to advocate for females, to educate and bring awareness about the autistic female presentation, and to contribute to the goal of “no more AspienGirls left behind”. What this means is that females will continue to be misdiagnosed, mis-medicated or receive the wrong interventions, until new female-based screening tools, female-based assessment tools, new diagnostic criteria and new interventions are created for females.
In order to assist in getting closer to this goal, the AspienGirl Project was created and has already donated 100 books and will continue to donate a certain percentage of its profits to sending out free books and resources to professionals, schools, libraries, Autism organizations, and the like.
Secondly, those profits will be used to assist those that cannot afford the cost of a formal diagnosis. We know that cost is a significant barrier to obtaining a formal diagnosis.
Thirdly, the AspienGirl Project has a goal of disseminating and educating as many people as possible and this means making translations available to people in other countries who speak other languages. We are collaborating with expert translators and currently I Am AspienGirl is being translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian and Brazilian. There are additional languages in the works.
So, I’d like the reader to know that when they purchase copies of the books or future AspienGirl resources, they are helping females in a variety of very real ways.”
We would like to thank Tania for taking the time to answer our questions. We wish he huge success with her Aspiengirl Book Series.
The AspienGIRL website can be found here www.aspiengirl.com
Tania’s Amazon Author page can be found here www.amazon.com/author/taniamarshall
You can also follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AspienGIRL and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aspiengirl