Description:
Ever wonder what it is like to be a teenager on the autism spectrum? Ever wonder what is going through their minds and how they see the world around them? Blaze Ginsberg, a young adult with High Functioning Autism, discusses his teenage years, his struggles and triumphs with school, his desire to “fit in,” and how he became the person he is today. His mother, Debra Ginsberg, will discuss what raising a teen like Blaze was like from her perspective.
Speaker: Blaze Ginsberg
Blaze Ginsberg is the author of Episodes: My Life as I see It. in 2002, Blaze Ginsberg was the subject of Raising Blaze, his mother’s account of her efforts to shepherd him through the public school system. The book covered eight years, from kindergarten through seventh grade during which Blaze was judged at various times to have learning disabilities, behavioral problems, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, and an assortment of other conditions, without ever being definitively diagnosed. In 2007, at the age of nineteen, Blaze finally received a formal diagnosis of high-functioning autism. Blaze has been writing short stories, poems, and songs since the age of nine. In 2006, he began writing his own book, a memoir which picks up where Raising Blaze left off, covering his years in high school and his first steps toward adulthood. Inspired by Internet episode guides such as imdb.com and TV.com, his memoir, EPISODES, describes his life as a series of TV shows in which he’s appeared. For more information visit: http://www.blazeginsberg.com/.
Debra Ginsberg is the author of the memoirs, Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress(HarperCollins, 2000), Raising Blaze: A Mother and Son’s Long, Strange Journey Into Autism (HarperCollins, 2002), and About My Sisters(HarperCollins, 2004) and the novels Blind Submission (Shaye Areheart Books, 2006) and The Grift (Shaye Areheart Books, 2008). A graduate of Reed College, she has contributed to NPR’s All Things Considered, is a regular reviewer for Shelf Awareness, and works as a freelance editor. She lives in Southern California. For more Information, visit http://www.debraginsberg.com/.