First BBC News article goes live across UK exploring life with alexithymia
23 January 2023
My first written article has been published on the BBC News UK site, exploring the effects of alexithymia and aphantasia.
Acting as a ghost writer, I helped politics graduate Saffron Anderton open up about her experience being autistic in a first-person account that was read over 200,000 times in its first 24 hours.
Alexithymia is the inability to identify one's emotions and the article on the condition, reported to affect about 10% of us, saw 22-year-old Saffron reflect on her difficulties. She explained "I can often tell that I am feeling something, but I just can't express or explain what it feels like for me."
The publication marks my first contribution to the BBC News website. On Twitter, user Rei (@x_HowlingEye) said it was the first time she'd ever seen alexithymia in the news. She added "as someone with this condition (which, please note is not the same for everyone) it's heartening to see."
It is tweets like this that make what I do so worthwhile. For so long I've wanted to be a voice for marginalised communities and to have made an impact, to have shone a light, to have made someone feel represented is a truly magical feeling indeed. Ironically, storytelling is all about emotions.
You can read the full article on the BBC News website here.