Mason Milne of Crohn’s & Autism Awareness Advocate Podcast is one of the kindest people and his heart is so genuine.   So often in mainstream society, people look at how old you are and judge whether or not they think you “look” or “seem” old enough to add value to a conversation.  What I love about our community is we don’t look at those same metrics, we take what someone is saying and the spark they add to the conversation and they could be 900 years old or 2 years old and a furry purple squishy as long as what they are adding or sharing resonates with us.  I love that about our community.  And what I love about Mason is that he didn’t take those mainstream social norms to heart but rather found his voice and his passion in podcasting and dove right in to what he does as an advocate today.

Meet Mason….

Social Autie: What is your specialty or focus area of Autism Advocacy?

Mason:  I like to focus hearing about different people’s experiences. I also like to talk about my journey with Autism.  As I have a podcast too, I feel this is a perfect way for my advocacy as well as social media platforms. This is the area I like to focus on but as well as being autistic, there is so much to talk about. Being diagnosed at the age of 9 it has taken a long time to enter the advocacy journey, I stated advocating in the autism community in 2020 and I’ve loved every part of it. It’s an honour to be part of the panel for the autism awareness month.

Social Autie: Why did you begin advocating for yourself and others?  What makes this personal to you and Your Big Why? 

Mason:  I started to advocate for myself and others because I needed to really.  It took a long time for me to accept being an autistic person. It was hard to talk about it when I was younger I suppose because I didn’t really understand it myself. The past few years I see so many people advocating their personal journeys, and I had to be a part of the community. I started secondary school (High School) life struggling, teachers didn’t understand me, I was the kid who didn’t ask for help, a while after that I went to a Special school which wasn’t easy to get too. I don’t regret one bit starting to advocate for autism I love every bit of it and I’ve met some inspirational and awesome people.

Social Autie: What is/are the top tip(s) or insight(s) you have discovered for advocating for a) others and b) yourself?

Mason:  Some tips I would give are, always be kind to yourself and take every day as it comes. Talking about autism isn’t easy straight away but what I have discovered is over the years talking about my autism has really boosted my confidence and moving away from mainstream was an important step for me. It takes time to understand your diagnosis and for your loved ones too. But the good thing about starting your advocacy journey is, you can decide when you want to start and what you want to share… because there are so many topics alongside Autism.

Connect with Mason Milne via Instagram @Advocate_for_Crohns

https://www.instagram.com/advocate_for_crohns/?hl=en

and on all major podcast platforms:

Crohn’s & Autism Awareness Advocate Podcast