Jen Malia speaks to parents, educators, librarians, administrators, community leaders, writers, and students about autism, neurodiversity, and children’s books.
As a freelance journalist, she is a go-to expert in autism and neurodiversity who has written personal essays, reported essays, op-eds, and book reviews for outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Woman’s Day, Glamour, and others. Her children’s books Too Sticky! Sensory Issues with Autism and the Infinity Rainbow Club series draw on her experiences with and research on neurodivergence. She is an autistic mom of three neurodivergent children who have different combinations of autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. She has more than twenty years of teaching experience and is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing Coordinator at Norfolk State University.
Listen to Jen’s NPR interview on With Good Reason for the episode, “Parenting on the Spectrum.” Jen talks about her book Too Sticky! and how her research led her to get her and her daughter diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Watch Jen in “Raising Autistic Children as an Autistic Parent,” a docu-style video from Parents magazine. A film crew visited Jen’s home to interview her and feature her family in their Parenting Against All Odds video series.
