Strong Female Character

"This is a book about how being a woman gets in the way of people's expectation of what autism should look like and, equally, how being autistic gets in the way of people's expectations of what a woman should look like."

Strong Female Character is a game-changing memoir on sexism and neurodiversity. Fern Brady uses her voice as a neurodivergent, working-class woman from Scotland to bring issues such as sex work, abusive relationships, and her time spent in teenage mental health units to the page. She takes a sledgehammer to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, which is mistakenly applied to neurodiverse women. She also examines how her disregard for social expectations ultimately meant she surpassed perceived limitations placed on Scottish working-class women.