[Speaker 1] (0:04 – 4:35)
Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we’re talking all things autism. What a roller coaster week I had last week. Lots of things happening but a little bit of sad news.

A lot of you know that I danced on the people strictly for comic relief and my dance partner Robin Windsor sadly died at the age of 44. Everyone’s in total shock. It was all over the news.

I don’t think he realises how many people loved him. Such a kind, gentle, loving man, fantastic dancer. I’ve known him for almost 10 years so I just I’m so I still can’t get my head around it at the moment.

I’ve been speaking to a lot of the Strictly pals as well and everyone. It’s really really sad. So I’ve just got to think of the positive the you know the lots of wonderful memories that he created for me obviously being on Strictly and then I did the tour with him in 2018, danced in various different theatres and then he used to come and support Autism Scott Taller every year.

He almost used to say to me Anna this sure really gets me. I always have to bring tissues so yeah we’ll be thinking of him. Yeah so anyway let’s move on to talk about lots of other things that have been going on.

So I was at Watford Football Club on Thursday with our charity champion Joe. So we’ve been supported by Watford for a little while now. So we took along quite a few families to Watford Football Club.

They had a tour around, they met some of the footballers, we had a little buffet as well. So it was just so lovely and everyone really enjoyed the experience and the lovely messages that we got saying that they you know children hadn’t stopped talking about it. It was lovely to be going somewhere as a family and not be judged so siblings could go along as well and meeting up obviously the footballers with like a big cherry on the top and they all got a little gift as well.

So lots of information will be on the charity website about that. So hopefully we’re going to be doing something else with Watford in the summer. So keep checking the charity website to find out more information.

So just to remind you it’s www.annakennedyonline.com. Just to remind you as well about a very modern family, the book Carrie and David Grant, good friends to me and also to the charity for stories and guidance to nurture your relationships. So Carrie and David have an extraordinary family story to tell.

They have four children, one of whom is the doctors and all have fun with a various sexualities and they are mixed race family too. It’s a reflection of the fact that society is changing faster than most of us can keep up with. The wider concepts of family and community are being deconstructed.

There are those who are desperately clinging to the old and those who are desperate for the new to be accepted. How do we hold our families and communities together at Unicing? How do we create a society where all are included and none are oppressed?

If you’re interested, the name of the book is A Very Modern Family by Carrie and David Grant. So Carrie and David again have been to Autism’s Got Talent and David has been a judge for the past two years at the Autism Hero Awards and talking about the Autism Hero Awards, they are coming up again. We’re going to be doing 2025 this year but we are asking for anyone to send in their entries.

There’s lots of different categories to choose from for people that go the extra mile for the Autism community. So the closing date will be the end of July and then we will be having the Hero Awards at the beginning of next year again. Keep checking the charity website if you want to follow my updates on social media if at Anna Kennedy One on X, Anna Kennedy Online on Facebook and at Anna Kennedy OBE on Instagram.

So today I’m excited to introduce to you Charlie Michael Baker. He’s a name known to many in the writing community for his book that has helped raise £400,000 for charity supporting autism. Charlie’s shared his struggles with bullying and suicide in the memoir which has now sold 17,000 copies.

So welcome Charlie.

[Speaker 2] (4:36 – 4:37)
Hiya Anna, how are you?

[Speaker 1] (4:38 – 4:57)
Yeah not too bad as I said bit of a roller coaster week but hey that’s all you can do. So before we talk about autism, before we talk about your books and you being a oh you’ve just got so many hats at the age of 17, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Charlie?

Where were you born?

[Speaker 2] (4:58 – 5:38)
Well as you can tell from the accent I’m not from where I currently live in Lancashire. I’m from Kent originally I was born in Kent, raised from Kent and I’ve lived with my family all my life. I live with my mum, my dad and my sister and honestly they’ve been such a support to me throughout all of this and so I just have to give them a little shout out and thank you.

But yeah no I used to live in Kent, Medway, so for all the Medway listeners shout out to you guys and we moved up to Lancashire which is about half an hour away from Manchester and two years ago now which is crazy, time flies.

[Speaker 1] (5:39 – 5:39)
Do you like it?

[Speaker 2] (5:40 – 5:46)
I love it honestly it’s amazing so many friendly people up here, they’re friendlier than southerners.

[Speaker 1] (5:47 – 6:30)
Yeah I always say that because I’m from the north. Obviously I love people in the south but everyone seems to be so busy in the south and rushing from here to there where in the north everyone makes time for everybody that’s what I like about the north even though I live in the south but hey it’s lovely because in my family I go every three to four months to see my mum, my dad, my sister and obviously I’m paged and today’s a chain charity so I’ll go and visit them as well so yeah that’s all good stuff.

So tell me a little bit about obviously you’ve written two books now so at the age of 17 wow so what inspired you to start writing and how it’s being autistic, I wonder how old are you when you were diagnosed with autism?

[Speaker 2] (6:31 – 6:46)
Six. So how old were you when you were told? I don’t know to be honest I just kind of knew I guess I don’t know I must have been told about when I was old enough so it must have been about tenish I think maybe.

[Speaker 1] (6:47 – 6:51)
Okay so talk to me about what inspired you to start writing?

[Speaker 2] (6:52 – 7:22)
Christine McGinnis actually she’s best known for being a housewife and she was campaigning for autism and I thought where’s the normal people advocating for autism I get that she’s this massive celebrity but where is the normal person advocating for autism you just don’t you you rarely see it and so I thought what’s best then to advocate for autism so I wanted to do that and then my mum said why don’t you write a book so there’s a mix between my mum and Christine McGinnis.

[Speaker 1] (7:23 – 7:27)
Wow okay so where did you start and how did you start?

[Speaker 2] (7:27 – 7:59)
I started in at the beginning of March and it was published on the 31st so was it yeah yeah no last year okay yeah last year um yeah no not this year yet we’re in February we’re in February now okay so March and how did it feel to hold the book in your hand? It was crazy seeing my name on the front of the book I thought oh my god this is amazing um

[Speaker 1] (7:59 – 8:34)
and yeah it’s crazy it’s really crazy okay so what so writing the book um I’m looking at a little snippet here on um amazon so you can buy it on amazon um kindle is £5 so you’ve got 11 chapters so the introduction saying if you don’t mind I’ll just read a little bit of it so growing up I faced many challenges especially with bullying and as a result I had a hard time managing my mental health nevertheless I had a peaceful haven in my life my nan oh he didn’t mention you know you left a shot for her in a minute um yeah talk to me about your nan now go on

[Speaker 2] (8:34 – 9:06)
yeah so I’ve always been really friendly with my nan honestly I’ve always loved her she was literally there in the room when I was birthed so um I’ve always gotten with my nan most out of the family she’s just kind of always been the one that’s there and I don’t know I just kind of she’s literally my spirit animal I don’t I don’t I don’t know how to put it into words I just love it a bit honestly so the move from Ken which was five minutes away from her house to Lancashire which is now what like five six hours it’s been hard but we are facetime and we we’re

[Speaker 1] (9:06 – 9:43)
lucky for that I was going to save you facetime she she could um with um electronic stuff and digital stuff yeah yeah um like upside like that when she reached out because I go back I know a few people that I’ve heard of so it’s a funny story okay um well that’s what she’s supporting you so um so at a young age I’m just carrying a little bit more I discovered my passion for social media and I knew that being an influencer was the route I wanted to take why why an influencer tell me about that because that seems to be like the buzzword the influencer

[Speaker 2] (9:43 – 10:30)
young people yeah it is isn’t it and I’ve noticed that quite a lot recently like loads of young kids have been saying oh yeah no I want to be rich and famous like and I was like that as a young kid it was always wanted to be rich and famous I used to watch a lot of reality tv and just watching their lives on tv walking around with leaves on bags like driving range rovers who doesn’t want that life um but now not me yeah anyway yeah the younger generation does like to kind of live for that and I’m just like well I wanted that but I didn’t know how much loneliness and solidarity comes with that and falling in um as well

[Speaker 1] (10:31 – 11:11)
so I mean really just a little bit more so overnight uh we did a post and it skyrocketed sky rocketed on your social media career and it got around for me like 80 000 likes and from that moment on it started posting lifestyle content consistently which helped me grow my platforms before it became an instagram influencer talking about an instagram influencer if you had to choose a social media platform you were just starting out so whether it’s first instagram x tiktok which one would you choose which is the less likely would you say to be fully done um I’d probably say uh tiktok

[Speaker 2] (11:11 – 11:24)
if you want to get started out but tiktok is a very niche uh platform so if you would like to um like be an influencer on tiktok or start posting content you do have to keep up with the trends

[Speaker 1] (11:24 – 11:34)
okay which i don’t do just say how much out of your date is that thing oh probably a long time

[Speaker 2] (11:34 – 11:53)
every tiktok influencer that i’ve met they’ve said that it takes about six to ten hours of their day so obviously they will yeah they will work in full time as well obviously yeah it’s crazy but once you make it there is there’s a lot of benefits with it just stay good from um

[Speaker 1] (11:53 – 12:15)
headaches they’re like constantly looking at the screen all the time and also the other thing would you say that um people are less likely to chat to each other as in face to face rather but everyone seems to be on the screen now chatting it doesn’t seem like people i don’t know maybe i’m wrong with the with young ones that they all seem to chat more on line or whatsapp or whatever it is rather than face to face would you say that’s the case

[Speaker 2] (12:16 – 12:42)
definitely yeah i’d say i i’m the same to be honest i don’t i don’t really like people yeah well it’s honestly it’s with my autism though i have social anxiety as well so obviously going out and speaking to loads of people is not really my jam um okay so just just sending someone a quick text is is really enough for me okay so um let’s talk about your

[Speaker 1] (12:42 – 13:02)
childhood and your teenager so a little bit here it says in the child it was evident that i was different from my peers my autism made it a challenge for me to socialize with others i struggled to make friends and had difficulty understanding social clues unfortunately this led to a lot of bullying and i often felt like an outsider at school so talk to me about

[Speaker 2] (13:02 – 14:11)
bullying when did that start and how did you deal with it um i’d always been the outsider during school it was like um i’d say probably from reception like in nursery um i’d always been the one that would sit there in the corner with no friends um and then it kind of i kind of got to realize it about year five year six that’s when i that’s the earliest memories i can really remember and gather i was always bullied i never really had any friends i would always just kind of try and sit with people and they’d be like uh charlie um for absolutely no reason at all because i did nothing to make them like hate me it was just kind of a few people started there oh yeah let’s hate charlie bandwagon and then they all kind of jumped on it and then it followed me sorry the teachers or the school do anything to stop them no no and i’ve been told i’ve um friends and they have kids who currently go to the schools that i went to and apparently it’s still the same which actually makes me feel disgusted

[Speaker 1] (14:12 – 14:33)
that’s not good just bullying can obviously it’s very um makes you anxious and it can affect you know lots of things that you do day to day can even affect people’s sleep patterns as well so so how did you deal with it did you speak to your mom yeah i spoke to my mum and she dealt

[Speaker 2] (14:33 – 14:55)
with all of it she’d take it to the school she’d make it known um and they’d they’d always make out like oh yeah no mrs baker we’ll do stuff we’ll do stuff and they never did because they just they don’t care when you’re in school you’re a number and that’s all they care about your money from the government that pays their rent and that is a very sad thing to hear but it’s

[Speaker 1] (14:55 – 15:01)
it’s it’s true i’m sure all teachers are not like that i’m sure a lot of teachers are very passionate

[Speaker 2] (15:01 – 16:16)
as well about oh no yeah definitely yeah i had a few teachers yeah i had a few teachers that i really got on with um and they helped me through all of it they’d take me away from certain situations and stuff like that but a lot of the teachers just really didn’t care and what about teenagers it kind of the bullying kind of followed me through school because a lot of the people that went to my primary school went to my secondary school as well i made one friend um and she was a girl and everyone kind of just jumped on the bandwagon that we were dating and obviously she didn’t like that because everyone disliked me which then meant she was getting dislikes because there was a rumor going around that we were dating um so obviously she stopped being friends with me so i was back on my own and then obviously a couple of years later i came out as gay so that went far that that really went far yeah how did um you speak to your mom and dad about me yeah yeah they just thought it was really unfair um because obviously it wasn’t true i just feel that people are childish really okay so let’s talk about um you’re going back

[Speaker 1] (16:16 – 16:26)
to your writing if you don’t mind so um can you share with us some of the theme or the topics that are important to you when you are writing and do you find does writing come easy to you

[Speaker 2] (16:26 – 17:13)
um i’d say it made yeah probably without like to hit me on home yeah i’d say like i like to write um i did not pass my GCC’s but um literally shortly after i failed my GCC’s i uh published my first book so okay yeah says a lot um but yeah i’ve always loved writing um so but the themes of the book i like realness i wouldn’t write um a non-fiction book a fiction book sorry um i’d always write non-fiction um and memoirs are my go-to as you can probably say i’ve got two books out there and they’re both memoirs um but yeah no i like write in my life stories i don’t know why

[Speaker 1] (17:13 – 17:19)
um but i just love it okay so when you were growing up were you um into reading and what

[Speaker 2] (17:19 – 17:39)
and what type of books did you like to read yeah yeah i read mostly all the time um i don’t know what books um it was all like biff chip and kipper and all that stuff wasn’t it they were the trending books do you remember those i do because my son used to read them

[Speaker 1] (17:39 – 18:11)
um yeah my young my eldest son i should say and also i remember at the school when we were at the school um a lot of those books were quite popular um we were going to think like harry potter or anything like that i never read the books but i watched the films okay i must admit i haven’t read the books and i haven’t watched the books so i know they’re obviously very popular um so okay so when you start writing a book um so for people thinking because i’ve spoken to a lot of people and they say oh i’d like to write a book but i don’t really know where to start can

[Speaker 2] (18:11 – 19:39)
you give them any tips and then he has fine of course yeah um so what i like to do personally is um i like to create a plan so um obviously you don’t have to stick to the plan you don’t have to like write down that you’re going to write 500 pages and write 500 pages exactly but um i like to plan out my books i have an idea in my head always before i write and i’m i said to myself like what what do i need to write about that’s how this uh my next book uh previous now because i published it yesterday but um that’s how that came about it was about six months into publication of my um book that i published in march and i just had this idea in my head oh my god nobody’s talking about this yeah i want to talk about it um and that’s how it came about i sat there and i planned it out i said i wrote down what i was going to write about what i was going to think about what i was going to make the readers feel and think and um i sat down and started writing it and then six months later we’ve sold uh i’ve got it crazy it’s crazy yeah it’s absolutely crazy i was i was so excited to put some publish in it i was like oh my god but i was nervous i always am really nervous and that is absolutely normal to feel nervous because you just don’t know how it’s going to be but you’re also nervous

[Speaker 1] (19:39 – 19:58)
because you’re passionate about something that you’ve written in it and you’re proud of it and you want other people to feel the same way you do so it’s that it means it really means something to you so that must mean you’ve put a lot into writing this book um i was looking at again at the first book and you’ve got role models down there i was just wondering who are

[Speaker 2] (19:58 – 20:52)
your role models my role models um my nan definitely she’s my nan honestly she’s top of the list definitely um i’d say myself and i don’t want to sound really self-centered there but you should always have yourself as one of your role models okay you should want to be yourself you shouldn’t really want to be somebody else and you should try and make yourself the best person that you can be um i really stand by that um yeah i myself and my nan are my role models they’re the top two um but obviously everyone has the celebrity role models um and stuff like that but yeah no myself and my nan okay so are you got any celeb role models definitely yeah um i have Kim Kardashian and Christine McGinnis and Georgia Harrison yeah Georgia Harrison as well

[Speaker 1] (20:52 – 21:06)
okay all right that’s good so um when you’re writing your books what sort of techniques do you use and do you have any sort of rituals to help you stay focused definitely i like classic

[Speaker 2] (21:06 – 21:34)
music and a few people are going to really turn their noses up at that um but a few people are completely agree they’ll be very divided so what kind of classical music come on elaborate a little bit Mozart definitely do you yeah Mozart it keeps me concentrated can you play any instrument can i no i cannot know i can’t dance i can’t sing i can’t play

[Speaker 1] (21:34 – 21:42)
instruments i think you might like doing the future you’re only 17 you know you’ve achieved these books so if you had to play an instrument which which ones you think you might

[Speaker 2] (21:42 – 21:51)
like to learn oh god um well i don’t know maybe maybe maybe guitar or the drums you know what i

[Speaker 1] (21:51 – 22:44)
thought you were gonna say guitar i thought you would say i always remember uh on autumn’s got talent there was um a lady from sweden and she sent me an email and she just said i’ve seen autumn’s got talent and she said um i might be too old to enter so i thought well how old are you she said i’m 44 i said of course you’re not you know because it’s for as young as five and it can be 100 if you like you know if you want to enter and she taught herself how to play the electric guitar from youtube and she is amazing and she uh was two years and she came on the stage she just blew everyone’s socks off and she got a standard ovation she was just amazing so that’s why i’m saying to you is you’re only 17 you don’t know what you’re going to be doing in the future what instrument that you might play you might think yeah i’m gonna have a go at the electric guitar or the acoustic guitar or as you say you might even want to do poetry have you

[Speaker 2] (22:44 – 22:57)
ever thought of that maybe yeah um i’d say i’d like to get into singing probably so okay opera yeah oh no not opera no i don’t have the worst of that i used to be in the choir though because

[Speaker 1] (22:57 – 23:12)
i used to i used to have a really high pitch voice okay lovely so um in what ways do you think storytelling can promote understanding and acceptance of neurodiversity um i’d say in my

[Speaker 2] (23:12 – 24:02)
personal experience um obviously the book has gone quite viral um so my voice has been heard by a few people um i’d say that it promotes neurodiversity because people don’t really understand it non-neurodivergent people don’t really go searching for it um and a lot of people’s people that have read my book are parents to children and they always message me saying charlie i really see this in my child they’re not neurodivergent but i really see that in them and obviously they wouldn’t find that out without people like me and yourself as well you’re a really big um autism advocate um and stuff like that so without people like us it wouldn’t be kind of as big and known we just really push it

[Speaker 1] (24:02 – 24:15)
hmm so um if you were to speak to a parent would you give them any advice with reference to you know the best their son or their daughter or their loved one what sort of advice would you

[Speaker 2] (24:15 – 24:54)
like to give to them if they’re listening now oh yeah definitely i always give advice to parents um honestly i’d say just really make sure your kids feel really supported because i know that without the support of my parents coming through um high school and just school in general really i wouldn’t be here today talking to you so i just really hug your kids go hug your kids like put your phone down right now and go hug your kids um i just i really feel like without a parent support system kids wouldn’t be the same thank you for that that’s lovely so um

[Speaker 1] (24:54 – 25:01)
have you encountered any misconceptions or stereotypes about autism in literature

[Speaker 2] (25:01 – 25:32)
oh definitely i’ve heard a few like there’s a few of the messages that i received that like how have you written a book you’re autistic aren’t you supposed to be like dumb and i just look i read that message and i think do people really think that people think that like autistic people are really dumb and i’m just like no that’s not how autism works um autistic people are actually really smart every autistic person i’ve ever met is like really successful and really really really

[Speaker 1] (25:32 – 25:54)
smart it’s crazy it is um you obviously we’ve chatted before and you’ve shared with me some really horrendous trolling um messages that you’ve received um i’m just going to repeat them um over the airwaves because they’re just so horrendous how do you deal with all of that

[Speaker 2] (25:56 – 26:50)
well people tell me all the time i’ve spoken to a few influencer friends i’ve spoken to a few um normal uninfluencer friends as well um and they’ve all just said just block them unfortunately for the volume of the amount of messages that i receive i physically cannot do that my fingers i think would fall off um but they are honestly horrific so i just don’t look at my messages now and i advise that to anyone suffering with any online hate or anything to do with online bullying or anything like that just don’t look at it and just think to yourself that you’re a person than them because they’ve got such a sad boring life that they commented on yours so just really ignore it um is my best advice for that um well i’d say go to the place if it gets

[Speaker 1] (26:50 – 26:57)
to it you know if it’s like it’s so extreme um oh yes you told me once that someone said they

[Speaker 2] (26:57 – 27:14)
took a photograph outside your window yeah yeah i’ve had i’ve had some people like google earth my house and stuff like that and like screenshot um it from google earth and like circle windows and stuff that they’re gonna climb through while i’m asleep it’s crazy how people will go how far

[Speaker 1] (27:14 – 27:35)
people will go just need to be very careful um yeah so i you know i think i might be wrong that since lockdown and covid but we’ve there’s always been bullying online and you know keyboard worries or whatever you want to call them but personally i think it’s increased since

[Speaker 2] (27:35 – 28:09)
lockdown and covid would you say that oh yeah definitely obviously i wasn’t an influencer during lockdown but um i’d say most definitely yeah um i’d i’ve always been bullied online though there’d always be even going through school there’d always be like group chats made and i’d be like excluded from them and um they’d talk about me in there saying like oh yeah did you see his hair today look at him or oh my god he looks so fat i developed an eating disorder because people were calling me fat really yeah yeah and i know i don’t put on weight

[Speaker 1] (28:09 – 29:09)
so i hope they’re happy it’s not about them being happy it’s about you being happy you’ve got to be you know you know you’re not the only one i i was speaking to someone actually just this morning who has been bullied online they said it’s been horrendous and i gave them the advice of just blocking them just go on just keep off social media for a couple of days you know just yeah your book or watch netflix or whatever it is that you you do just to try and you know just sometimes it can just really get to people and they try and reason you try and yeah but there’s no reasoning you just need to really just block them move on and speak to people that are like-minded like you yeah so where can you see yourself in five or ten years time

[Speaker 2] (29:09 – 29:50)
what would you like to do five or ten years um i don’t know i’d like to like dabble in tv i think obviously you said before that you was you was on tv you was on you was on budget strictly which is amazing so a round of applause to you um honestly i don’t know i don’t know where my life is coming from this point because i didn’t expect all of this love so far so yeah um i don’t know i literally wanted to be a flight attendant before i became an influencer yeah um until i until i realized i was a bit too tall um so yeah no i’m six foot two so you have to be under six foot

[Speaker 1] (29:50 – 30:06)
yes i’m six foot two yeah something to do honestly yeah oh so you you obviously still only 17 what about have you ever thought about you might like to go to college or university um i did think that

[Speaker 2] (30:06 – 30:48)
um i wanted to go to college but um not really no because i didn’t want to be the one that everyone points out and says oh my god that’s that that’s that influencer um universities on the cards though um i would like to study to be a journalist um i’d like sharing people’s stories obviously i’ll run a blog um porter uh it’s spelt p o r t y h it’s spelt that way because um it’s a scrambled version of trophy and my tagline is autism uh is your trophy um yeah it’s cool isn’t it um i like that but yeah you don’t need to get made out of that honestly i do i need like merch

[Speaker 1] (30:50 – 31:04)
you’ve got all the links you’re very creative very creative for him um i’m sure that will happen for you um what does your mom say to you what she might like for you to do was that she just

[Speaker 2] (31:04 – 31:31)
happy for you to do what you want to do are you down i think she’s really happy for me to do i want she knows she can see that i’m happy i’ve always got a smile on my face um i don’t let the trolls bring me down do you know what i mean they’re not worth it um i’ve always got a smile on my face i just uh i’m always really happy i’m happy with what i do i’m happy with the people that i meet i’m happy i’m just a happy person well that’s good to hear uh i think with everything

[Speaker 1] (31:31 – 31:56)
going on in the world at the minute there’s a lot of people that you know finding things tough but i think you’ve just got to try and you know find something that you like to do and just focus on it and and keep going and it sounds like that’s what you are doing so your second book that you’ve launched um today have you got a copy of it in front of you where you could just like um let me share some of the information that’s on it or maybe read it on it definitely

[Speaker 2] (31:56 – 32:36)
i’ve got it here i can read about out um all i can read a bit of chapter one of the outcast tale it’s cool okay can read a few sentences now um i’m charlie baker a name that once carried no weight this will be on the confines of my small town but with the turn of events that followed my publication uh followed the publication of my book my name my name became a symbol of resilience a beacon of hope for those who have suffered in silence this is a story of my journey through the shadows of bullying a journey that led me to unexpected places both within myself and the world

[Speaker 1] (32:36 – 32:53)
around me that’s chapter one oh i think very very good with the way you write things i like that very good thank you for sharing so with what are you coming in how are you going to manage that so obviously you need to you know take care of your money have you got someone to help you

[Speaker 2] (32:53 – 32:57)
like finance and that sort of thing account no no i do it all myself

[Speaker 1] (33:00 – 33:04)
okay so um if somebody wanted to buy your books how much do they cost and where can they find

[Speaker 2] (33:04 – 33:52)
them to remind everyone listening there’s a book called charlie baker autism in me and that is available on amazon worldwide um walmart in um america and canada and barns and noble stores across america america and canada okay and how much does it cost uh paperback is uh fourteen pound ninety nine um and e-book is five pound okay so um did you have like a book launch have you had done the book signings or anything like that i was meant to um i noticed when you said daisy chain earlier i was meant to go to their event in new castle but unfortunately i couldn’t i couldn’t because it was um a little bit last minute um so but yeah no i met them at northern fashion week

[Speaker 1] (33:52 – 37:19)
um so they’re really nice oh yeah i was supposed to go there as well i couldn’t make it so um i’ve been um back to the um Canadian chain for quite some time now quite a few years and they’ve only just recently been to london fashion week which is really exciting so yeah that’s good they’re just doing so well um the the founder obviously was a mother of a young lad who was on the spectrum and um she found this piece of land and then just before it opened she didn’t even see to get the official opening she died and it’s just so sad that she hasn’t been able to say how much it’s you know grown it’s just it’s just growing and growing all the time but her best friend um basically he came the CEO and she um wanted to make sure that it went to where her friend wanted it to be so she was there i think for about 10 years might have been a bit longer now um and she’s moved to france now and she’s set up um oh what’s it a travel business oh wow she keeps in contact with me now and again um and yeah so um yeah no it’s just it’s just such a lovely place to be they’ve got animals there and they do a lot of training they’ve got the super store which i’ve been into where people donate things that you know may not they might not want anymore so it might not be furniture it might be books it might be uh knickknacks whatever it may be and then autistic people um actually work there they’ve got a cafe in there as well and then they both have one now a skew capsule so on the back of that they’re just doing so well niraj who’s the um CEO i know i’m really well he just messaged me actually a couple of days ago um and um yeah he’s just really excited about everything and how it’s growing so quickly and i think oh i can’t remember how many families they support now something might be seven eight hundred something that might even be more it’s just growing well times it’s an amazing place so if you ever get the chance to actually go and visit um it’s it’s lovely and that’s popping to their um supermarket store thing that they’ve got it’s like a big warehouse but people don’t it’s so much stuff to them it’s just really lucky the way everything’s going so that’s great and i’m sending my book yeah why not send them your books um yeah people um who are listening in to you now and there’ll be a little article on the charity website about charlie a photograph of him so as well you know what he looks like the links to both of his books and um yeah so if you wanted to contact him um or you want to share the podcast which comes out the following week you can do that too so i meet so many interesting people on uh women’s studio series i’ve been doing it like for about five years now we used to be in the studio at um coven garden i used to love it there when we used to meet them we used to go for a coffee then we’d go in the studio do our interview and then come out and chat again so um i used to love doing that and um but now it’s obviously since lockdown and it’s been online which is great but i must admit i still prefer meeting people face to face so it would have been nice to meet you but i’m sure i’ll meet you at some point charlie uh definitely yeah is there anything else that you would like to share we’ve still got quite a bit of time now to talk um about everything about what you want to chat about this is all about charlie baker autism and me

[Speaker 2] (37:19 – 37:55)
of course yeah um charlie baker autism and me um honestly i love that book it’s my first book ever and it’s my baby um do you know what i mean like honestly i’ve shared that with literally everyone honestly everyone anyone that asks it’s like yeah take a copy please take a copy like if anyone comes up to me in the street i’ve always got about five um copies of the book in my bag by books yeah i carry them around everywhere i’m sent to the school where you went to no no should i send them a copy

[Speaker 1] (37:57 – 38:01)
do you remember that boy well that’s me

[Speaker 2] (38:02 – 38:13)
they know well they know about it anyway because uh the daily mail-outs will reach out and to them for a comment and they they didn’t respond so no no it was quite a good

[Speaker 1] (38:13 – 38:24)
article to be honest oh yeah so how do you feel about when um you’ve got papers like the daily mail chatting to you and the reporter do you feel confident chatting to them it’s crazy uh

[Speaker 2] (38:24 – 40:22)
sometimes yeah um obviously i’ve had a little bit of pr training um now because i did kind of overshare a little bit before so you do have to have like a bit of pr training behind you um before you get into the pr industry okay so to study to become a journalist what exactly do you know what that involves um i think so yeah i’ve done a little bit of online training so i am um like i’ve done the introduction training from reuters and that was quite straightforward actually but you have to learn quite a bit about the backstory um of journalism and stuff like that so you have to be you have to be quite clued up and it’s it’s not um some of them can be online i did an online training course um over the course of a few days um but no you actually have to have a degree um to become an actual journalist okay which is crazy yeah yeah there’s only a little bit of an introduction to uh young journalists and stuff like a little bit too young for university and degrees and stuff like that but um i’ve had a few journalists that have spoken to um actually um like say which ones are good and which ones are not which courses they’d advise so i’m lucky to be surrounded by journalists really i wonder how long the course is do you reckon three or four years uh so they vary um some of them can be uh part-time as well so you can do a part-time course over i think it’s two years if not you can do a full-time fast track course in london where you’re there literally every single day and i think that’s uh 22 weeks i believe okay it really depends um one of the um people that

[Speaker 1] (40:22 – 43:03)
have been on women’s radio station before just wanted to highlight on the charity website with bobby labaron i think it was it must have been early uh it’s the early last year he actually writes songs and he’s written books like yourself and he’s written some great songs and if he uh came on daisy chain he did it at the theater and he’s got a wonderful singer called beth who sang a song for him so he’s getting bullied by more staff than students and he’s written another book which uses his book to shine a light on how autism is misunderstood so like many others who are autistic bobby has known for most of his life that there was something that made him different from his peers as a child he often preferred spending time with adults but if he got older he got bullied because he was autistic and not just by kids but by adults who were meant to protect him he felt like it was getting bullied more and more by staff and students and he used to go home and cry throughout school he suffered from panic attacks that would cause him to run out the room crying rather than having empathy teachers labeled him as a naughty child i don’t know how many times i’ve heard that and around 13 years old he was officially diagnosed autistic but because autism is still mixed and misunderstood it didn’t really improve this situation that much uh he’s such a lovely young man um so he’s written a book called this is how my world in my world by sorry my world in my words by bobby latin came to be so incredibly credibly focused writing a book and he kept the secret and was ready so two years later without telling anyone his book was in water stones in riddlesborough and online fella amazon and ebay bubby shares with and he to inspire people so um this article’s on the charity website and it’s also spoken on bbc radio teams which i’ve spoken on many times so if you want to check out bobby uh similar story to yourself really um and he is a little bit older than you but yeah you’re interested but he’s written a few songs where he’s had professional singers sing his song so it was fantastic when we did daisy tune um autumn’s got planet roadshow so he was there he was absolutely loving and so was best who was the singer so um that was fantastic so really really enjoyed it can i ask you something um do you have experience if you don’t mind nothing sensory all the time yeah something gets a bit too much for you so how do you deal with it

[Speaker 2] (43:03 – 44:18)
and what do you do to help yourself it depends what kind of situation i’m in um obviously i put myself into a lot of situations like i work at a bar which is a common misconception of me yeah i work at a bar obviously i don’t serve because i’m under 18 but i work at a bar so see lab music and we have like 200 people in the nights that i’m working so it can get a bit much but um i take myself out of the situation i go outside for five minutes and i just stand near the bouncers really because we have two bouncers on the door and i just stand and have a chat with them and they always make me feel really safe because they’re like massive six foot something tall and really buff and big so i feel really safe for them um but obviously like events and stuff like that as well being an influencer you get invited to so many events and you meet so many people sometimes it does get a bit much and my head just goes whoa take it take a step back so i do i just kind of sit down um and take a minute away um and i find that really best to do you shouldn’t ever burn yourself out you should just take take two steps back and just take time for you really yeah because i know quite a few people

[Speaker 1] (44:18 – 45:07)
that you know they they want to do events and they like to go to events but sometimes it can just get so overwhelming with it whether it’s the lights whether it’s the sound whether it’s people brushing past them touching them or whatever so they basically just start take themselves away for a little while you know get themselves back on track if you like and then yeah so back in when they feel ready and it’s the same with some people that i know they’re at work you know if they might be working in an open plan office they can hear everybody chatting in the background and sometimes that can get a bit much so um what you could do is ask if you could possibly listen maybe to an audible a book or something or listen to some music while you’re working as long as you’re getting on with your job depending what it is because i know that’s what my son does and then you don’t hear all that chatter in the background which then you know it disturbs you or puts you off whatever it is that you might be doing

[Speaker 2] (45:07 – 45:26)
work right so yeah so yeah i used to work in an office so and they used to do that as well they used to like put music on and stuff like that so they they know honestly all my bosses have been really kind and friendly about it oh your bosses you’re only 17 yeah i’ve had a few

[Speaker 1] (45:28 – 45:35)
oh so um you can you can you see yourself um setting up a company and then managing other people

[Speaker 2] (45:35 – 46:09)
do you think that’s something that you might like to do um i have dabbled in business um i did own a few businesses um but yeah no i’d say it’s something that i’m quite passionate about yeah i’d say that’s something i could definitely get into again type of businesses with it you don’t want me asking um i had a skincare business um yeah yeah 2022 and okay then i had a non-alcoholic sparkling wine business for the for the youngsters out there that can’t drink alcohol yet

[Speaker 1] (46:09 – 46:22)
right i was listening to something on the news lit uh recently and they were saying younger people now are less likely to drink alcohol um yes do you say that’s

[Speaker 2] (46:22 – 47:06)
um yeah i’d say so yeah i did an interview about that actually the other day i’d say that people are less um likely to drink alcohol now because they don’t need to validate volatility um to do that um obviously i work in a bar i’d say a lot of the uh customers we have tend to be older people um they’re not really the usual 18 19 20 year olds that do drink alcohol i think that everybody i think to be honest personally i think that they just need to save for a house because if they’re going out every weekend drinking alcohol there’s no whether they’re going to ever be able to afford a house in this climate really i don’t know how i’m going to

[Speaker 1] (47:06 – 47:59)
drinking now because again talking about the news they’re talking about younger people having their drinks spiked uh it’s very worrying uh yeah so yeah yeah okay i’ve never drunk to be fair you know i just don’t see the need to drink i’ve always uh not drunk alcohol i don’t smoke either but i think with me as well is with my um younger son angela i feel that i always need to be alert because he has no sense of danger and he’s always going to need one-to-one support so i would never forgive myself if anything happened to him so i feel like i’m alert all the time especially i’m always busy and i’m always doing stuff so uh it’s just never really interested with me i suppose i’ve come from a family that don’t drink and my husband’s never drank so i suppose if you haven’t sort of experienced it it just doesn’t it just doesn’t really mean anything

[Speaker 2] (47:59 – 48:05)
yeah yeah okay i like alcohol i like a bit of wine you can’t be a bit of wine obviously one

[Speaker 1] (48:05 – 48:13)
with a meal one with a meal yeah well talking about food have you got any sensitivities with food

[Speaker 2] (48:13 – 48:39)
um i do actually to be honest uh mint toothpaste is one it makes my teeth go all really funny and um cold foods i’m really sensitive to cold foods like i can’t sit there and enjoy a bowl of ice cream i’d like my eyes water and everything it’s really weird uh i’m not sure what you’re

[Speaker 1] (48:39 – 49:03)
saying about this the cold and yeah but what i was meaning about say for example um when my sons were younger they would have foods and it was very beige so very beige foods but also they didn’t like their food touching each other so say for example they had a chicken nugget and they had chips you couldn’t have the chicken nugget touching the chips they had to be separated

[Speaker 2] (49:03 – 49:13)
that’s what i meant like yes almost all when you put ketchup on the plate and it like touches the nugget that nugget that nugget is getting thrown in the bin i’m sorry i know we shouldn’t

[Speaker 1] (49:13 – 49:33)
waste food but i’m sorry but that nugget is gone okay um my son angela um used to when he ate chips you know the very pointy bits at the end of each chip used to flick off each end of the chip that’s a bit in the middle so there’s always like flicked endy bits of the chips um on the plate

[Speaker 2] (49:34 – 49:38)
so yeah that’s like me with pizza i don’t eat the crust i can’t eat the crust

[Speaker 1] (49:38 – 50:10)
okay yes but i think uh can change as well you know food habits like for example when my son was younger he would only eat certain foods but now was a 34 year old man um he eats all sorts he will try anything um angela’s a little bit more where he might have to just lick it first or smell it and then he might try it um so but everyone’s got different ways of eating things i know something else with my sons and a lot of people i’ve spoken to they don’t like sitting next to people when they eat because they don’t like the sound that they make when

[Speaker 2] (50:10 – 50:47)
they’re eating does that bother you sometimes yeah if a person is cheering very loud like very very loud i’ll be like no i’m out i’m sorry i can’t i can’t do it if we’re in the restaurant and i’m sat with somebody i don’t care if you’re my best friend of like 10 years no please do not chomp in my ear i don’t know if that’s just an autism thing or if that’s a normal person thing um but um yeah i don’t like it am i sorry good cook am i could cook absolutely not no i burnt ice

[Speaker 1] (50:51 – 51:20)
i can’t seriously to look after yourself you need to learn how to cook uh i’m sure you’ll be uh honestly um so talk to me about any tips that again that you might like to give people listening so talk to me about tips you talked to me about tips about parents so talk to me about advice and tips that you would give maybe your younger self growing up um what is it i’d say

[Speaker 2] (51:22 – 52:33)
i’d say talk to someone because that was my trouble i didn’t really talk to people um and i just i wouldn’t take a step away if i was getting bullied i’d try and always say something back and try and defend myself and i noticed i noticed now like looking back they didn’t need i didn’t need that volatility like i didn’t need to stand there and try and fight my war because there was really no war to fight it was just like them just being sad and them being depressed in their own lives really what i should have done is tried to console them really um because now looking back i can tell like i’ve spoken to a few people that used to bully me and they were like i’m really sorry i was really depressed at that time and it was just taking out on me and looking back at that i can kind of gather that and understand why there’d be not very nice to me because of their own thoughts and feelings so i’d say really just try and make them my friends um i don’t know yeah i’d say that does that make sense yeah i don’t be trying

[Speaker 1] (52:33 – 52:40)
to say but i’m asking you now have you forgiven them for the word immediately um i’d say a few

[Speaker 2] (52:40 – 53:22)
of them um obviously some of some of the ones that were quite bad it was it wasn’t very nice you know i mean i i tried to take my own life three times because of that um so it was it really wasn’t a nice time so some of them yeah i can understand that i can i still message with some of them um now but that’s because i only know their intentions are pure a few of them have reached out and they’ve tried to be nice to me because they want money um or a shout out which is two things i’d never ever ever do but um so they’ve just been immediately blocked they’re gone i don’t have time for that and i don’t want that negativity in my life anymore

[Speaker 1] (53:22 – 53:27)
no you don’t there’s too much negativity out in the world the minute you don’t need it in your

[Speaker 2] (53:27 – 53:33)
life exactly i’m i’m trying to spread a positive story so if you’re going to bring me negativity

[Speaker 1] (53:34 – 56:51)
your vlogs that’s that’s our charity we try and um reach out with positivity stories you know we know all about the negative stuff um but we try and you know escalate their positivity as much as possible uh we have a well-being ambassador and we enrolled a well-being ambassador because again of covid and people struggling so juliana wheat has been our well-being ambassador for the charity for the last three four years but i’ve known longer than that she has a son on she’s very very good and always talks about the power of touch um so if you um check out the charity website there’s lots of information where um juliana has shared various different techniques that have worked for her she’s actually put something up um called the de-escalation techniques for diffusing meltdowns so there’s 18 she’s put up there so i’ll just read them so it’s like very quick so it’s don’t yell to be heard over a screaming child avoid making demands validate their feelings not actions don’t try to reason be aware of your body language respect personal space get on your child’s level use a distraction acknowledge your child’s right for refusal reflective listening silence sometimes silence can really work with my son um be non-judgmental answer questions ignore verbal aggression movement break avoid the word no decrease stimulation deep breathing exercise calming visually but focus more on those moments but for your child rather is than what rather than what your child does always remember and whatever the neurotypical world tries to bring yourself sells with you are raising a child not fixing a problem sometimes we’re assigned mountains to show others that they can be moved our children face daily mountains of ignorance isolation limited beliefs judgment and chronic lack of expectation so if they want to hurl their climbing gear to the ground occasionally and just take time out they will soon pick up their climbing sticks again and show others that mountains can and will be moved i love the way um julian writes she’s very powerful yes a very powerful writer isn’t she yes yes and if you ever want to write an article um for the charity website i am very happy to share it charlie and also for people that are listening in if you want to be a guest on women’s radio station i think i’m booked up till april now um but if you’d like to be a guest please either message the charity website just to remind you www.anna kennedy online.com or you can message women’s radio station and just say that you’d like to speak on all things autism all i need from you is a little bio and some questions that you would like to ask me and a headshot so i’ve had quite a few now for the last five years so many interesting people whether they’re professionals parents carers siblings you name it we’ve had some amazing guests on here so um and again i’ve had an amazing guest today with the lovely charlie michael baker so just to remind people charlie where can they buy their

[Speaker 2] (56:51 – 57:41)
book and how can they follow you uh my social media platforms are instagram really that’s all i’m on um and that is at charlie michael baker and uh you can buy my book on amazon and my newest e-book um which is 15 chapters long about social media you can buy it will not buy it really because we’re giving it away for free at the moment and i don’t have any hopes to change that um that is available on charlie m baker.net um i just would also like to shout out simon brown um who is the editor of red the lifestyle magazine for helping me get um onto this um radio station um obviously as you can tell anna’s a very very very busy lady with her she’s backlogged since april was it anna yeah

[Speaker 1] (57:44 – 57:55)
so yeah i’ve met simon he’s so lovely he’s a really lovely guy and um i’m going to be seeing him and silencing i think in a few weeks time so i’m looking forward to that oh wow that’s amazing

[Speaker 2] (57:55 – 57:58)
yeah uh to just tell you that we’re going to be working together really soon as well

[Speaker 1] (57:59 – 58:03)
oh see look you missed that one out on the interview what is it you’re going to be doing

[Speaker 2] (58:03 – 58:31)
come on can you share um i’m not sure yet he wants me in the magazine which is going to be really cool because um i’m going to give them a little story um and speak to him about my book um hopefully in the new book but probably a bit about the old book um yeah so i’m really excited to speak to simon because he’s literally like he’s a really really really smart person and i love simon’s bits so simon brown guys simon brown there you go simon you’ve had

[Speaker 1] (58:31 – 59:55)
a shout out and i’ll be seeing you through this time and yeah i’ll be in the magazine so hopefully you never know we might be in the same magazine together yeah so um i just want to say again don’t forget if you want to be a guest on women’s radio station please please send us a message through the charity website and keep up to date with everything going on in the charity website we’re still looking for performers for autism scott talent the closing date is the end of may we have the autism hero wards of the closing date but that will be end of july we also have our free workshops um we have quite a few coming up now but my husband shawn talking about eo test or various different topics and we hopefully will have one very soon on talking about setting up trusts and wills which is obviously another complicated procedure that we need to set up to make sure our loved ones are looked after i just want to say thank you again charlie for chatting to me today it’s been a pleasure talking to you and keep doing what you’re doing and look after yourself and um also thank you to women’s strip your station for allowing me to keep talking all things autism and uh everyone look after yourself but it’s all about well-being and taking care one day at a time thank you very much charlie take care of yourself thank you and i speak soon thank you bye everyone bye bye