Autism, queer identity, ambition, and building a life on your own terms. Author and advocate Yenn Purkis joins us for an honest conversation about their experiences and the expectations they’ve refused to live by.
Welcome to AuDHD for Grownups: F Them Fish, with Callie Elward-Barrett and Jayne Gurton, your neurodivergent besties talking adult ADHD, autism, and the stuff nobody explains about grown-up life.
This week, Yenn Purkis joins us in the Nook, bringing spectacular rainbow hair, a love of cats, and a remarkable willingness to share the difficult parts of their story alongside the joy.
Yenn talks about receiving an autism diagnosis in prison, being misunderstood within mental health services, and finding support that helped them imagine a different future. They describe the steps towards university, a 17-year public service career, writing books, and a home they love, alongside the continuing reality of living with schizophrenia.
We get into ambition, the limits other people place on us, and why asking for help can be complicated when independence matters deeply. We also compare our responses to motivational advice and question where protection, challenge, and resilience meet.
Then we explore the joy of recognising your identity. Yenn shares their experience of coming out as non-binary and asexual, choosing their name, and finding people who understood. Expect swearing, side quests, and a Podcat determined to join the conversation.
Content note
Strong language and discussion of incarceration, bullying, trauma, drug use, psychiatric hospitalisation, schizophrenia, suicide risk, and discrimination.
In this episode
Yenn’s books and website
Yenn also mentions their books with Lived Places Publishing. Contact Yenn through their website or social media to enquire about their newsletter or signed copies.
A note from us
We share lived experience, professional perspectives, and personal reflections. This conversation is not individual medical, psychological, or workplace advice. Our ideas about autism, motivation, and resilience are exploratory, not established explanations of how everyone’s brain works. People’s circumstances, barriers, and support needs differ. Expect swearing, disagreement, and ongoing learning.
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This podcast was created on the lands of the Ngunnawal, Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung Peoples. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners.
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