Dr. Gwynette: Okay, Chris. You have our next question.

Chris: How do you explain to others that autism isn’t something you can always see?

Kerry Magro: That’s a great, great question. As a kid, my autism … People knew right away, because I wasn’t speaking as much as my peers. And now people come up to me on the street and they hear about my autism advocacy work and, “Kerry, you have autism, but you don’t look like you have autism.” One of the things I do with my platform today is I really talk about the importance of understanding invisible disabilities, because even if you can’t see a disability on the surface doesn’t mean that that individual isn’t going through challenges.

Kerry Magro: So that’s something I really, really advocate for on my Facebook page, Kerry’s Autism Journey, along with all my social media channels. I think we need to do a better job of educating our community simply that … I mean, even individuals such as, I mean, celebrities who are on the autism spectrum. Dan Aykroyd, who came out with Ghostbusters, who has Asperger syndrome. Nobody knew that he was on the autism spectrum until he came out about it in a news article several years ago.

Kerry Magro: So I think it’s just about spotlighting those types of stories so people realize that autism is a very wide spectrum.

Kyle: Dr. Magro, is this article still available online to read? Because I do actually have Asperger’s myself.

Kerry Magro: Yes. I think The Guardian were the first who actually posted it, but if you just type in Google Dan Aykroyd and autism, there are countless articles now. I’ve written several blogs on just the impact that … I love Ghostbusters, so it was kind of cool to hear that Dan Aykroyd was on the autism spectrum. So if you just Google Dan Aykroyd autism, you will get a lot of resources.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s awesome. David has our next question. Speaking of movies.

David: Can you tell us how you got involved with the Hollywood movie scene?

Kerry Magro: Easier said than done, unfortunately. I kind of got very, very lucky. I wrote a ton of blogs on how autism in theater therapy impacted my life and then I had a movie director just give me a call one day. His name is Todd [Graft 00:02:56] and he says, “Kerry, I read about your blogs on autism and theater. Would you be interested in potentially reviewing a movie script for you?” I thought I was being punked. I thought it was a complete joke. I thought it was one of my friends trying to get a rise out of me and then long story short, he sent me over this 89 page movie script and I was like, “Oh, okay, so he’s serious.”

Kerry Magro: I rewrote the entire script in maybe two days to make the character as realistic as possible to somebody with autism. There was a character in this film specifically who was on the autism spectrum. So I rewrote it and then he asked me if I wanted to be the autism consultant and then two years later, Joyful Noise came out. I had a wide release. I was in Hollywood with all these amazing celebrities seeing the world premier. Then that opportunity gave me the opportunity to talk and network and get my story out there to more people so I can continue my consultant work today.

Kerry Magro: One of the things I would highly encourage you to do, if you’re interested in movies, is definitely write. Write a ton. Write as much as you can about different movies you may see who have individuals with autism, because a lot of the time it is about just getting your voice and story out there and potentially somebody will come out to you and ask for you to be a part of it. That’s kind of how it worked for me. I mean, I write movie reviews and TV reviews, because autism and disability continue to be shown in our entertainment industry.

Kerry Magro: Netflix, for example, just came out with a docuseries called Love on the Spectrum, which is incredible, which talks about autism and relationships. So I wrote a review within like the first 12 hours that was out, because I knew I needed to be the first person there, because if I want more opportunities to consult, I need to get my name out there. So definitely continue to write. Do movie reviews. Do TV reviews and just continue to share your story.

David: I do live streams on YouTube and I do video vlogs.

Kerry Magro: That’s awesome. I do too.

David: My YouTube series is called Voice of Autism and my video vlog series is called Living With Autism, which you kind of already get a book out of a little series I do on my YouTube channel.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s cool, David. Thank you for sharing that. We’ll go to Scott. Why don’t you go ahead, Scott.

Scott: You’ve accomplished so much. What are your goals for the future?

Kerry Magro: So many. I unfortunately, a lot of the times, drown in opportunity, I think, and I kind of need at some point to reel myself back in and realize that like all these … And this is for so many of you. It’s like there’s so many opportunities out there for all of us and it’s really about just honing it in. That’s something that I definitely need to do a little bit better job on.

Kerry Magro: I would really love to see myself get into a relationship, get married. I think that’s one of the big ones coming up now that I’m living independently, have a little bit of freedom in terms of job opportunities. That’s something I want to do. I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to have a family and I also want to be a college professor. I think that is something with my EDD I definitely want to put myself out there for a potential adjunct position where I could teach. Not necessarily on special needs, but something in the marketing realm, because I have a background in business.

Kerry Magro: I would definitely love to give back in some way to the future generations of individuals in school.

Scott: That’s awesome.

Dr. Gwynette: We’re going to go to Kyle now, who’s going to ask the next question.

Kyle: Can you tell us more about your company and how it got started [inaudible 00:07:13]?

Kerry Magro: So my company actually started based on the idea I wrote on a napkin my junior year of my undergraduate degree. It was like 2:00 a.m. I was like having Nathan’s hot dogs. It was really just a night of partying and but it was interesting, because I was thinking to myself, “Gee, you know, I see a lot of articles on nonprofits,” and I was thinking about just how much I had to pay personally to attend my university and how much scholarship I didn’t get, because I was awful at test taking and most universities, especially public universities, look at SAT scores and they look at GPAs as more of a scholarship aid. That really just got the ball rolling, just this random thought at 2:00 a.m. and thinking to myself, “Gee, I should start a nonprofit and maybe help get people to donate just a little bit every now and then to help me provide scholarships for students who have autism to go to college.

Kerry Magro: So literally that 2:00 a.m. led to maybe three months later me filing for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and then a year later getting it and then just starting my nonprofit really with the idea of doing the scholarships, doing the advocacy work and then later down the line we started a video series so we could break down barriers for those with special needs called The Special Community where every single place I get the opportunity to speak, I bring a tripod and a camera and I sit down with self-advocates for 10 to 15 minutes at a time and I just ask them, “What would you like the world to know about you?” Not only in the hopes of breaking down barriers for those with special needs, but also giving individuals my platform for a few minutes so they could have something to be proud of and so they can spotlight their story.

Kerry Magro: So that’s kind of just what we’ve been doing today with the nonprofit. It’s a very small nonprofit. It’s just myself and interns and assistants, but hopefully one day it will be something I’ll be done more full time.

Kyle: It’s always interesting to see how ideas are sparked from different situations.

Kerry Magro: Preach, absolutely, 100%.

Dr. Gwynette: That is fantastic and how many people that’s going to reach, it’s unbelievable. Great, so we’re going to go to Miles now for the next question.

Miles: How do you use social media to accomplish your goals?

Kerry Magro: I think social media is a great asset to getting your story out there. In terms of just getting speaking engagements, I’ve been very blessed to have a community who have supported my work, who have given back to my nonprofit. Social media-wise, Kerry’s Autism Journey has kind of blossomed over the years. We now have 202,000 Facebook followers. We have one of the largest social media followings in the autism community today and I’m just truly blessed to have had the background in digital marketing. I work with several groups on their social media campaigns over the years kind of just learning the nuts and bolts of it and now to have this platform has given me the opportunity to find speaking engagements, to raise money for my nonprofit and it’s been really, really great. I would recommend for anyone who’s just starting off and wanting to become an entrepreneur, potential public speaker, or simply just an advocate for our community to get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, being the main big three and just share why this cause is important to you.