Post by Laetitia Andrac 🌈♾️

I flew to Melbourne and back in a day for the Yellow Ladybugs Conference. Brutal? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. From the moment I arrived, it felt amazing. So many familiar faces, finally in person. People I've been podcasting with, following online, learning from. Something about that shift from screen to room is so nurturing. Here are the three talks that moved me most: 1. Understanding Hidden Autistic Presentation with A/Prof. Josephine Barbaro and Amanda Moses. This is work we think deeply about at Understanding Zoe, so sitting in that room and hearing it explored at that level so insightful. I have so many notes. 2. Autistic Friendship with Marie Camin and Sandhya Menon. The way they spoke about how their friendship looks different, I felt so seen. It mirrored so much of how I experience connection and friendship as an autistic person. 3. And Mish Kumar-Jonson's talk on the voices not centred in mainstream neurodivergent conversations. It was a lived-experience perspective that explored how autistic experience is shaped by identity, culture, and belonging. Loved it. A bonus that stayed with me: Kelsie Olds' poem. I cried. It was that good. I also want to shout out the masking talk that opened the day from Sarah Gurrin. One slide read: "Masking is like Afterpay. The classroom gets the product today. The child pays the emotional instalments later." That image is still sitting with me. I sat on the floor the whole day because I couldn't do the chairs at the tables. And honestly, that was amazing. And we had some Understanding Zoe merch... the old school chatter box was so fun (as the theme was going back to the 80’s). I attended Day 3 in person, saving all my spoons to be fully present for it. But Days 1 and 2 are available on replay for 90 days, and I'll be watching. So there may be more posts coming. To everyone I met, heard, and learned from: thank you for sharing a space with us. And to our partners and Understanding Zoe users who were in the room, it means everything to see you and hear about your experience using the app - thank you for your kind words. Tagging those in my photos: Caitlin Hughes, Christina Schmidt, Michael Coles, Johanna Badenhorst, Tyla Stroebel, Riley Jordan, Louise Gilbert.