Jenny Story is a college graduate, professional animator and best-selling author. What makes Story particularly unique is that she’s also 22 and lives with autism.
As Story is celebrating the success of her first novel, book one of a planned trilogy, her mother, Janet Walmsley, is celebrating her own writing debut, with a book about what it was like to raise Jenny.
Walmsley said she first noticed something was amiss with Story when she was about two. At first, she thought it was her hearing, before eventually coming to the often-grim diagnosis of autism.
“Her speech had stopped, she wasn’t talking and she wasn’t sociable,” Walmsley said. “When she was assessed at three [years old] we were told it was autism.”
Although the diagnosis was hard at first, it didn’t stop the family from moving ahead with the job of raising a daughter. Story went on to discover art and drawing became a routine as she grew up struggling with extreme social anxiety.
Walmsley, on the other hand, toyed with the thought of a book.
“Autistic children are fixated on routine, they like the same thing over and over again,” Walmsley said. “She loved animation movies. She could totally act them out and start drawing the characters.”
Story is out of the worst of her autism, but Walmsley said her daughter still faces difficulties in her day-to-day life.
“She had her trials and tribulations since she was diagnosed, until even now,” Walmsley said. “She has to work really hard.”
After a year in school, Story decided it was time to pursue her novel. The finished product is called Dysnomia, and it’s the first in a trilogy.
Mother and daughter are now both published authors. Walmsley’s book, The Autistic Author and Animator: A mother’ view of a daughter’s triumph, chronicles the challenges of raising a daughter with autism.
Walmsley said the idea came about for the book after watching her daughter struggle and knowing the benefits she gained from talking to other families with children with disabilities.
“I said to Jenny, is it OK if I wrote this story about you and your life? This is what she said: ‘Mom, if we can help one person that will help them with their autism or special needs, then we have done our jobs,’” she said,
“When you hear her say that... it’s the reason why I wrote this book. I feel she is a role model and an inspiration. She’s living proof.”
Walmsley hopes her book moves people, even those not dealing with autism. The inspiration for the book was Story herself.
“She kept looking at me and saying, ‘You believe in me so much, Mom.’ I said ‘Yeah, and you have to believe in yourself, Jenny.’”
The books by Jenny Story and Janet Walmsley are available on Amazon.
@KathleenSaylors
