A wonderful story from the author & creator of DeadEndia webomics (the Netflix adaption became Dead End: Paranormal Park).
Norma was neurotic, pedantic, and anxious but also brave, loyal, and principled. She was my attempt at writing the average teen. But as time went on, readers kept asking me variations on the same question - “Is Norma on the spectrum?” / “Did you mean to write Norma as having ASD?” / “Can I headcanon Norma as autistic?”
Because of the fan reaction to Norma, when it came to writing the Netflix adaptation, we hired an autism consultant - Michelle Dean. She came in to read our scripts and check we’d been handling the representation while. After reading the first few, she came back to me saying “Wow, you must have done a LOT of research”... I guess I had. 31 years of it. It was the writing of the tv show which led me to seek an official diagnosis.
Norma speaks to queer, autistic kids like me, but also any teen who ever felt like they’re navigating a world that wasn’t made for them. It’s why the characters in DeadEndia relate so much to the demons they encounter. They too have been “demonized” in one way or another.