Library's review
Girls with Asperger syndrome are less frequently diagnosed than boys, and even once symptoms have been recognised, help is often not readily available. The image of coping well presented by females with Asperger syndrome of any age can often mask difficulties, deficits, challenges, and loneliness.
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This handbook written by a woman with Asperger syndrome is for females with Asperger syndrome of all ages. The author guides the reader through many aspects of both personal and professional life, from early recollections of blame, guilt, and savant skills, to friendships, romance, marriage and motherhood. Employment, career, rituals and routines are also covered, along with depression, meltdowns and being misunderstood. Including the reflections of over thirty-five women diagnosed as on the spectrum, as well as some partners and parents, the author identifies recurring struggles and areas where females with Asperger syndrome need validation, information and advice. As they recount their stories, anecdotes, and wisdom, the author highlights how differences between males and females on the spectrum are mostly a matter of perception, rejecting negative views of females with Asperger syndrome and empowering them to lead happy and fulfilled lives. Show Less
Publication
Jessica Kingsley Pub (2010), Edition: 1, Paperback, 236 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member BookNeurd
This is a useful book for women who are considering diagnosis, or who are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (now ASD). Rudy Simone covers a wide range of topics from her own experience as well as other's she has talked to. She includes quotes from other Asperger women within the book, which is
Rudy's story and writing style is a little black and white, which can be a help and a hindrance at times. A help, because she is encouraging of women with Asperger's to empower themselves, but a hindrance because there are times when she makes it seem that her form of Asperger's is representative of all forms.
Overall I found the book to be anecdotally helpful for my purposes, though I would like to see a book with a slightly more scientific perspective.
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interesting.Rudy's story and writing style is a little black and white, which can be a help and a hindrance at times. A help, because she is encouraging of women with Asperger's to empower themselves, but a hindrance because there are times when she makes it seem that her form of Asperger's is representative of all forms.
Overall I found the book to be anecdotally helpful for my purposes, though I would like to see a book with a slightly more scientific perspective.
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LibraryThing member detailmuse
“Aspergirl” (the term) was coined by author Rudy Simone (herself an Aspergirl) to denote a girl with Asperger Syndrome. And Aspergirls (the book) is nearly as catchy as the term. It’s the paper equivalent of a one-on-one conversation with an older sister or girlfriend or mentor who’s
Simone’s overall purpose in this book seems twofold: first, to help Aspergirls survive (advocating a zero-tolerance for bullying, then framing aspects of different-ness in a way that builds self-esteem); and second, to help them thrive (promoting education/training as the path to financial security and personal independence). Each of the 25 chapters addresses an aspect of Aspergirl life, among them: sensitivities; coping behaviors; puberty; friendships; education; work; marriage; children; aging. I was going to characterize it as more supportive and less informative ... until I found myself quoting from it numerous times over coffee with a friend! It’s an accessible, female-centered resource that will be empowering for Aspergirls and revelatory to those who love them.
(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)
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“been there” -- a fast and very casual source of information and support directed primarily to Aspergirls (of all ages) and secondarily to their parents, siblings, spouses, and children.Simone’s overall purpose in this book seems twofold: first, to help Aspergirls survive (advocating a zero-tolerance for bullying, then framing aspects of different-ness in a way that builds self-esteem); and second, to help them thrive (promoting education/training as the path to financial security and personal independence). Each of the 25 chapters addresses an aspect of Aspergirl life, among them: sensitivities; coping behaviors; puberty; friendships; education; work; marriage; children; aging. I was going to characterize it as more supportive and less informative ... until I found myself quoting from it numerous times over coffee with a friend! It’s an accessible, female-centered resource that will be empowering for Aspergirls and revelatory to those who love them.
(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)
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LibraryThing member Kasthu
'm not usually into reading books about Asperger's, but I picked this book up because I recently disclosed it to my supervisor at work (after experiencing sensory processing problems), who told me he thought it was "just a label." This book more or less confirms everything I've ever known about
The book is divided into chapters that focus on all the challenges that girls and women with AS experience: self-taught reading skills, sensory problems, gender roles, puberty, dating and relationships, friendships, employment, having children, having temper meltdowns, rituals and routine, and getting older on the spectrum, just to name a few. Nearly all the things discussed in the book describe me life completely, so it was interesting to me to read that many of us have gastrointestinal trouble, connected to stress. I've had it all my life, but I'd never connected it to AS (which I didn't find out I have until I was 25). Another thing I thought was interesting, and totally on, was the chapter on AS in the workplace, and the importance of having obsessions to keep us focused on our careers (I always thought that having obsessions were bad for me).
Rudy Simone's approach is hands-on, and her writing style is easy to read. The chapters are short and give good tips to women and girls with AS and the people closest to them. I don't know that I believe all the holistic stuff, but I think this book should be required reading for women and girls who have been diagnosed with AS.
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Asperger's, but it's tailored to women and girls, which makes it much more relevant, at least to me. For some reason, research on autism and Asperger's focuses more on the male experience, so I thought that this book was refreshing in that aspect.The book is divided into chapters that focus on all the challenges that girls and women with AS experience: self-taught reading skills, sensory problems, gender roles, puberty, dating and relationships, friendships, employment, having children, having temper meltdowns, rituals and routine, and getting older on the spectrum, just to name a few. Nearly all the things discussed in the book describe me life completely, so it was interesting to me to read that many of us have gastrointestinal trouble, connected to stress. I've had it all my life, but I'd never connected it to AS (which I didn't find out I have until I was 25). Another thing I thought was interesting, and totally on, was the chapter on AS in the workplace, and the importance of having obsessions to keep us focused on our careers (I always thought that having obsessions were bad for me).
Rudy Simone's approach is hands-on, and her writing style is easy to read. The chapters are short and give good tips to women and girls with AS and the people closest to them. I don't know that I believe all the holistic stuff, but I think this book should be required reading for women and girls who have been diagnosed with AS.
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LibraryThing member heike6
Wow! What a great book! Well written and thorough. Unlike other books on Asperger's, I felt like I was reading about myself!
LibraryThing member EinfachMich
I've struggled with writing this review, because this book has good qualities and I think it's very helpful for someone who suspects that they or their child has AS. However, it is heavily slanted by the personal experiences and point of view of the author. So much so that at times it put me off or
I would recommend this book to teen and adult readers, but there's not much that can help a young child. Though there are stories that can help the parent of a young child better understand their behavior. I would also recommend this book to anyone interested in better understanding AS, and especially for anyone looking to better understand how gender is a factor in diagnose and social acceptance of disabilities like AS and Autism.
I ESPECIALLY recommend this book to mothers of autistic children. I suspect that many of us actually have undiagnosed AS and reading this book really highlights the similarities I share with my children and helped me better understand and empathize with them.
On the whole this a good, book, a fast read and very informative. I just wish there had been some other, contrasting opinions and experiences to balance the author's views.
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distracted me from the information I wanted. I would recommend this book to teen and adult readers, but there's not much that can help a young child. Though there are stories that can help the parent of a young child better understand their behavior. I would also recommend this book to anyone interested in better understanding AS, and especially for anyone looking to better understand how gender is a factor in diagnose and social acceptance of disabilities like AS and Autism.
I ESPECIALLY recommend this book to mothers of autistic children. I suspect that many of us actually have undiagnosed AS and reading this book really highlights the similarities I share with my children and helped me better understand and empathize with them.
On the whole this a good, book, a fast read and very informative. I just wish there had been some other, contrasting opinions and experiences to balance the author's views.
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LibraryThing member duende
Not particularly well written or edited, but had interesting information.
LibraryThing member kk1
This is a general collection of experiences. It feels more of help to the next generation, since the term aspergirls and the advice is geared towards solving problems at an earlier stage of life; always don't let yourself be bullied. But this is sometimes not easy to achieve. The idea of having to
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re-evaluate your whole life, with new knowledge as a stage/process to go through is depressingly familiar. As are some ideas about family dynamics. Show Less
LibraryThing member t1bnotown
So I'm fairly certain I have Aspergers (autism spectrum disorder), although I haven't gotten the official testing done yet. This was an interesting read. There were a lot of relatable parts, though some parts I definitely see more in other people. For example, there was a big emphasis on meltdowns,
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which aren't a thing I recognize myself having (although maybe they appear differently than I expect them to), so that made me doubt myself. Also, although she generally acknowledged that symptoms are on a spectrum, there were times where she referred to things as kind of universal (like saying that all Aspergirls react very strongly to any medication or anything artificial - I avoid as much as I can taking anything, but not because my body responds to it). It did give me a good perspective on a few other people in my life who are likely on the spectrum and didn't suspect it, and I've recommended this book to quite a few people. The chart in the back (also shared on her website), is a good place to start and get an idea of whether you might be on the spectrum. Show Less
LibraryThing member cindywho
Highly anecdotal, and sometimes a little woo-woo (touching on psychic powers and ayurveda) but interesting.
LibraryThing member Ray_
What a beautiful, entertaining and informative piece of literature!
I really enjoyed going through this book, not only for its light nature and smoothness, but also for the important and captivating subject it includes.
Simone tackled a sensitive, not very known but very important topic in this book
To be quite frank, up until a few weeks ago, I had no idea such a thing even existed, but when I did I immediately started Aspergirls, and it really helped me understand the nature of Asperger, how it can manifest and how to deal with people who have it.
I feel like I have better understanding of the syndrome after reading this. And while I do not claim to be any sort of expert, I can confidently say that from now on I would know how to deal with people with AS.
All in all, this was such an interesting read and I highly recommend it to everyone with any amount of interest in mental health.
I really enjoyed going through this book, not only for its light nature and smoothness, but also for the important and captivating subject it includes.
Simone tackled a sensitive, not very known but very important topic in this book
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which is Asperger Syndrome.To be quite frank, up until a few weeks ago, I had no idea such a thing even existed, but when I did I immediately started Aspergirls, and it really helped me understand the nature of Asperger, how it can manifest and how to deal with people who have it.
I feel like I have better understanding of the syndrome after reading this. And while I do not claim to be any sort of expert, I can confidently say that from now on I would know how to deal with people with AS.
All in all, this was such an interesting read and I highly recommend it to everyone with any amount of interest in mental health.
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LibraryThing member LisCarey
This is a very interesting and in some ways very useful book about high-functioning autism--or, as was still the officially accepted but already challenged label at the time of original publication, Asperger's syndrome--in girls and women.
There's a lot here about how under-diagnosed autism has been
Yet, the anecdotal approach has real limitations, too. Rudy Simone doesn't have the scientific orientation of Dr. Camilla Pang, another autistic woman who has written about autism, and one consequence is that this book does not have the broader and deeper grounding of Pang's Explaining Humans:What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships. Simone doesn't seem to have looked at the experiences of women and girls who aren't a great deal like her, making this book, to use a term that I honestly never anticipated using in a book review, extremely cisheteronormative. (Not because there's anything wrong with the term; just because I'm a white cis woman in my sixties for whom many of the terminology that comes from greater awareness of intersectionality and its importance feel strange and alien to me, even though the ideas they express feel very right.) Most of the discussion of relationships in this book did not even in passing consider that some autistic/Asperger's women might not be white, might not be straight, might possibly be transgender. That last omission might be due to the original publication date, in 2010, when there was less open discussion of transgender issues--or the belief that there was less discussion of transgender issues may be a sign of the bubble I was living in on that subject, ten years ago. In 2020, though, it really stands out as a blind spot.
There is a lot of good, sensible advice here for teens and tweens and their parents dealing with these issues. That's the area where it's most helpful and valuable. It's less useful for adults, although the encouragement to pursue a diagnosis and meaningful help, if it seems appropriate, even in later life, is good.
Yet Simone seems to generalize far too much from her own personal experience, and not check in with the science and the data nearly enough.
Moreover, there's a distressing amount of what I call woo-woo. Simone believes that autistics may have psychic powers. No, seriously. Much of the anecdotal evidence she cites sounds to me a lot more like survival-based learning to read body language in other people, whether consciously or not. She's also quite taken with the idea that autism may be caused by digestive system problems. She conducts her own tiny (ten people), uncontrolled "study" with a food supplement for which the makers claim near-miraculous effects.
It's an interesting book, but a very mixed bag. I did really enjoy the first half of it or so, up to about chapter seven, but after that it seems to go off the deep end.
Still, it was an interesting listen, and there is good, practical advice for teens and tweens, and their parents.
I bought this audiobook.
There's a lot here about how under-diagnosed autism has been
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and still is in girls, compared to boys. It's very much grounded in Simone's personal experience, and her interviews with an unknown number of women and girls with Asperger's diagnoses. It's interesting and informative, in terms of how high-functioning autism can be both a genuinely different experience for females than males, and also less recognized in females because of different expectations that society has for women and girls vs. men and boys.Yet, the anecdotal approach has real limitations, too. Rudy Simone doesn't have the scientific orientation of Dr. Camilla Pang, another autistic woman who has written about autism, and one consequence is that this book does not have the broader and deeper grounding of Pang's Explaining Humans:What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships. Simone doesn't seem to have looked at the experiences of women and girls who aren't a great deal like her, making this book, to use a term that I honestly never anticipated using in a book review, extremely cisheteronormative. (Not because there's anything wrong with the term; just because I'm a white cis woman in my sixties for whom many of the terminology that comes from greater awareness of intersectionality and its importance feel strange and alien to me, even though the ideas they express feel very right.) Most of the discussion of relationships in this book did not even in passing consider that some autistic/Asperger's women might not be white, might not be straight, might possibly be transgender. That last omission might be due to the original publication date, in 2010, when there was less open discussion of transgender issues--or the belief that there was less discussion of transgender issues may be a sign of the bubble I was living in on that subject, ten years ago. In 2020, though, it really stands out as a blind spot.
There is a lot of good, sensible advice here for teens and tweens and their parents dealing with these issues. That's the area where it's most helpful and valuable. It's less useful for adults, although the encouragement to pursue a diagnosis and meaningful help, if it seems appropriate, even in later life, is good.
Yet Simone seems to generalize far too much from her own personal experience, and not check in with the science and the data nearly enough.
Moreover, there's a distressing amount of what I call woo-woo. Simone believes that autistics may have psychic powers. No, seriously. Much of the anecdotal evidence she cites sounds to me a lot more like survival-based learning to read body language in other people, whether consciously or not. She's also quite taken with the idea that autism may be caused by digestive system problems. She conducts her own tiny (ten people), uncontrolled "study" with a food supplement for which the makers claim near-miraculous effects.
It's an interesting book, but a very mixed bag. I did really enjoy the first half of it or so, up to about chapter seven, but after that it seems to go off the deep end.
Still, it was an interesting listen, and there is good, practical advice for teens and tweens, and their parents.
I bought this audiobook.
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Pages
236