Autumn
“I think I have a really intense personality I hide with humour but I can’t stand it when other people are happy to let everyone else do three times as much work instead of pitching in to help. If you have a job to do I think it’s important to do it as well as you can.”
Autumn is 29 and a barista, illustrator, and working on a graphic novel. She has many passions and hobbies including drawing, reading comics, cooking, performing stand up comedy, but most of all, going to the movies. She told me, “. I see like one movie a week, MINIMUM. One year I saw like 73 movies or something like that with my best friend.” When I asked her what her proudest achievement is she told me, “ I’ve pinched pennies and saved to print my own comics and go to conventions across North America. It’s not easy to do that on minimum wage, even with my privileges. A lot of times I’m really just working with a wish and a prayer and hoping for the best so when I get things done I’m pretty proud of myself for that.” Autumn’s favourite quality is her enthusiasm, telling me, “no matter how many times I’ve been knocked down or rock bottom, I have a little cry and then get back up again to keep dreaming about better greater things.” Something that inspires Autumn the most is “looking through the comics I’ve collected by my friends over the years keeps me inspired and excited about what’s to come.” The most challenging experience in Autumn’s life was getting her ADHD diagnosis. She told me, “I had a very hard time throughout my middle and high school years as well as university and obviously in the Muslim community for so many people school is number one and I felt inadequate for so long because I never liked school or really was able to flourish in university like I was told I would. I felt like a failure and even now it’s hard but after a lot of falling down and getting back up again I have tangible evidence that it wasn’t 100% my fault and I have a brain that sabotages me, getting here has been a 15+ year journey and I’m still in the middle of it.”
Q&A Feature:
Where is your favourite place to find yourself?
“I like to be in coffee shops and cafes. I like people watching and even if I’m not interacting with others it’s nice to be surrounded by people.”
What is your biggest hope?
“To see more stories about Muslim girls in all sorts of media, like my chosen love, comics! Muslim girls deserve all sorts of stories! Why should muslim men only get fun messy human stories where the Muslim girls are portrayed badly? I want to see the full spectrum of every girl I’ve ever met in my community and beyond.”
