After searching for literature to help her understand her autistic perception, Maria Zimmermann decided to write a book about the subject herself. In the process, she learned how much the language we use to talk about something shapes our relationship with it.

She speaks of ‘discovery’ rather than ‘diagnosis’, ‘traits’ rather than ‘symptoms’, ‘being autistic’ rather than ‘having autism’, ‘in the spectrum’ rather than ‘on the spectrum’, ‘sensory sensitivity’ rather than ‘sensory processing disorder’, and ‘peculiarities’ rather than ‘difficulties’.

In short: ‘Different’, not ‘wrong’.