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Author of Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum
Marian Schembari is an author and essayist whose first byline was at age eleven in Highlights for Kids. It was a poem about dragons. Since then, Marian’s essays about travel, friendship, money, and love have appeared in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Good Housekeeping. At thirty-four years old, Marian was diagnosed with autism. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter.
By the time Marian Schembari was thirty-four, she’d spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn’t just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped.
It wasn’t until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn’t weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic.
“I feel weepy with gratitude for this book. Marian writes with humor, insight, and immediacy. An absolute page turner. This book is a gift to humanity — no exaggeration — and should be required reading for all. A Little Less Broken will make the world a better, more compassionate place."
