i never sat down intending to make a project like this. i knew i wanted to create a piece for neurodivergent women like me who grew up feeling unheard, but i struggled for months with where to take it. in tutorials, my lecturers would suggest speculative social groups and awareness campaigns. however, a simple support group didn’t feel like a real response to my experiences.

Hey Girl started as a list before it was ever a zine. i wrote down the comments that had made me feel small, dramatic, lazy or “too much” in regards to my neurodiversity and then realised they weren’t just mine. i conducted a survey of autistic women to gather a wider range of experiences and phrases. the list became messy and long, and i couldn’t stop thinking about what it would mean to see all those comments stacked together in one place, instead of hearing them drip‑fed over a lifetime.

visually, i knew I didn’t want the zine to feel clinical or academic, we already has enough of that. i wanted us our voices to be bold instead of quiet and clinical. i leaned into chunky speech bubbles and loud pink and green because they feel slightly too bright and overwhelming. the zine is physically small and easy to pick up, and it also encourages neurotypical individuals to pick it up and learn more about how neurodivergence in women presents, and to reconsider their language choices.

by the end, the project became less about my individual stories and more like a small archive of things people say without thinking, and how heavy they become when you see them together. as someone who grew up hearing these phrases, this project is particularly meaningful to me. rather than stressing about the grade, i became more interested in creating a piece that speaks back a little: to the people around me, to other neurodivergent girls who want to be heard, and to allies who want to learn how to better support their neurodivergent peers.