Charlie Baker: Autism And Me

Autism and me So you guys wanted to see my life through my eyes? Haha you ask and you shall receive. I was diagnosed with autism in year two of primary school. I was approximately 6 years old when I was diagnosed. The signs of having autism are; experiencing difficulties with communications and interactions with other people, restricted interests and symptoms that affect the ability to function in school, work and other areas of life. Autism can be diagnosed at any age, some people might have milder symptoms which means that they may not need to take medication to help with it. Being autistic myself, I have done a lot of research and looking into autism spectrum disorder. I have looked into what are the risk factors of developing autism, can people overcome autism and what are ALL of the symptoms of autism. I have consulted with many professionals in the industry to make sure everything in this book is completely factual and the information I am releasing to the world is in no way shape or form fake, false or a forgery. 
 How it started
 As highlighted before, my autism was diagnosed in year two of primary school so I was approximately 6 years old. It was known that I had autism because of the symptoms I was showing at the time. With autism, sometimes you will struggle with being social. Kind of like social anxiety, but like it stays. I’ve never really had ‘friends’ because of this. I’ve always had people I hang around with, people I talk to, people I see and people I’m friendly with but I’ve never really had ‘friends’. Ive only ever had a couple of best friends in my whole life. I like to keep my circle small, very small. I like to have one friend at a time, not like a million at once. Think of all the birthday presents you’d have to buy. LOL. I don’t do big circles, I never have done. I hate a crowd, it makes be feel so unexplainably uncomfortable. Growing up I was born in Gillingham, Kent on the 5th of February 2007. A lot has changed since then, firstly, I don’t live in Kent anymore. In 2021 we moved to Lancashire to be closer to our family who also live in Lancashire. Although I still have grandparents, uncles, cousins and aunties in Kent, which I miss very much, I do love the change that we made - it’s different up north! The people are friendlier, it’s just so much more fresh. People ask me all the time if I’d move back to Kent and I don’t really know if I would to be honest. I miss being closer to everyone, my Nan the most. I absolutely love my nan to bits so I do miss her very very much. I used to do a paper round when we lived there and I always used to do extra so I could pop into her house after, it became our little Sunday tradition lol. I miss everyone there, it’s very different not seeing the same faces that you’ve seen for years. You go from speaking to someone all the time and then never speaking to them. It’s not the same over FaceTime. In march my uncle and his parter visited us and it was honestly so fun - I absolutely loved spending time with them again. His partner is so nice too - so happy for them both! I don’t know if I’d ever move back down now my life is here but who knows what the future will bring? I grew up struggling a lot and that’s why I was so close to my nan. She was more of like a bestie. Any trouble I had, she’d know what to do. It was quite a struggle growing up though, feeling alone. I was bullied a lot through end of primary school and my whole secondary school life - I’m glad I’ve only got two months before I start my GCSEs!! I was bullied for years, and that affects you a lot more thank you think. People think words are just words and never think about how they could potentially impact someone. You really never know what someone is going through and one comment, that might seem silly to you, could really affect them! I am really grateful and appreciative of the voice and platform that I have today! It feels so reassuring that I have a built in friendship with over 400,000 people on social media. My messages are mostly filled with positive, lovely comments. I say mostly because I do get the occasional negative comment or 10 - but you learn to just sigh and move on after a while. At this point in life, it doesn’t really matter how negative you are towards me, chances are, I’ll come out of it with a beaming smile on my face! You really should never let people get to you. All the time you are letting their silly comments rule your life - they are winning! They want you to feel that way about yourself because it makes them feel better about themselves! Don’t let them bother you - and that is the best advice I could ever give someone that asks! Back on track We kind of wandered off a little bit in that last ‘chapter’? If you will… LOL I’ve been told that’s what they’re called. I can say that because this is an autobiographical (I know…. A big word) book. It is basically like me having a chat with you, which I love!! It’s great! My life has changed dramatically over these past probably 10 years! So far I have opened (and closed…eek) two businesses, I have gained ‘insta fame’ AND now I have the best people around me than I ever could have imagined. And I did that with autism, anxiety and a raging urge to sit around and do absolutely nothing but watch Netflix and eat lots of junk food! I have the best family, the best friends, the best fans and even the best management team ever!!! (@lavish influencers on i********:… you’re welcome!! Haha) use code Charlesbaker when you DM her please and thank you! Hahah oh and I’ve been told that I must add that that code *is* and affiliate code… whatever that means lmao! Those people have truly helped me through everything and I am so blessed to have that!! Advice from me! Autistic or not, sometimes we all need a little bit of help, a little chat, a friend to be there - and that is exactly why I wrote this book. I want to be that friend, talking to you through the pages. I’ll be that person that you can come to for anything, I’ll be your safety blanket and that’s really want I want to get out of writing this book! It’s not for money - 15% of all proceeds go to charity by the way - I want to be there for people, I want to know that I, Charlie Michael Baker has helped someone, somewhere out in the world over come something or just being their online, paper, scree (depending on what you’re reading this on) friend. I know that I’m not for everyone, and that’s okay, I can live with that. I just want to help people. There’s not enough nice people in this world any more and if I can write a few words on a few pages that can better someone’s day, or even hour, I’d settle for hour lol, then I know I’ve done my job right. These GEN-Zers are just not ittttt!! Learn to be nice - it’s nice to be nice! How I deal with my anxiety I get asked this a lot and I don’t really have an answer to it to be honest. I have just got used to putting a brave face on it and just moving forward. I’ve learned that not everything will go your way in life and sometimes things will be said and done that you may not necessarily agree with or like, but not everyone will think the same thoughts and do the same things as you. My safety blanket and what I use to help me de - stress I’d 100% say that my safety blanket is my friends and my grandparents. I don’t have many friends and I am very pleased to announce that to the world, you don’t need loads of friends to be happy in life. My friends are very close to me and they are the ones to thank for everything I say and do. Although some relationships and friendships don’t always go to plan, which is hard sometimes, I just have to try to pull through all of my emotions and feelings after all I do own a business and I am an influencer with the world watching my every move. I find that difficult at times too, the world watching. Sometimes people on the Internet aren’t the nicest so one wrong move, one comment, one look, one post could get thousands of negative comments, thousands of negative private messages, thousands of unfollows. It’s not as easy as it looks. I once lost over 40,000 followers because I said I liked a specific brand which cannot be named for legal reasons… LOL. 40,000!!! That is absolutely insane! I was nearly at half of a million followers too! I was devastated! You definitely have to be more aware of what you post online when you are in the public eye. Everything is scrutinised. I should’ve really named this chapter ‘my social media journey’ lol. Oh well. I definitely have my friends to thank for my confidence and characteristics. I look up to tv personalities too which helps a lot! The Only Way Is Essex is definitely my safe space. Whenever I have a bad day I’d just watch TOWIE. The whole cast just makes me feel so warm and safe. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Joey Essex before and Harry follows me on t****k (I nearly died when he followed me lol). I’d say my favourite person from the cast is definitely either Junaid, Saffron or Chloé. My hopes and dreams for the future My hopes and dreams are very unclear at the moment. It’s so hard just trying to pick one thing to do. I wanted to be a flight attendant for a few months but my height would’ve been an issue with it. I’m currently 6’ 1” and the maximum height is like 6’ 2” so by the time I’m 18 I definitely would’ve gone above that. I was absolutely gutted as that was literally my dream job ever. I then went through a stage of wanting to do dog breeding and dog fertility because I worked at a dog fertility shop which specialised in dog fertility, dog grooming, dog walking, pet supplies and even food. I worked there for a while until I realised it wasn’t really for me and decided to go down my own route. I was doing social media and everything behind the scenes too. It was very difficult. I’ve always really done everything on my own. I’ve always been solo. I’ve run my businesses by myself, my social media’s and even all brand deals I’ve done completely by myself and I’ll forever be proud of that. I’d say my hopes and dreams are always changing and the truth is, I really have no idea what I want to do. 



About the Author Hi guys, it’s me! I am the person who brought this lovely book to your eyes and brain. The story behind this book is that because I am probably the worlds first autistic, 16 year old male with 400,000+ followers on his i********: that also has anxiety. I wanted to write this book to basically show life from my perspective. People have always said, “i wish I could think what you think!” Well, now you can! I hope that this book finds everyone well and just know that, if you are struggling, there is always people out there to help. Just reach out. And please check in on your friends from time to time. Ask them how they’re doing, mentally. Sometimes, it doesn’t come to light until it’s too late! Thank you all so so much for reading up till here, I’ve loved sharing this with you! This book is copywrighted. All rights reserved. © Charlie Michael Baker