Alix Generous is a young woman full of bright ideas and passion for her career. At the young age of 19, she won first place in a nationwide competition for her work in quorum sensing and coral reefs. In 2013, Generous served as a youth delegate for the UN Convention of Climate Change. She has even worked with neuroscience researchers at various universities including University of Vermont and Tufts University School of Medicine.
Generous also has Asperger’s syndrome, but she was misdiagnosed for years. Asperger’s is a form of autistic spectrum disorder that can hinder the fundamental social skills required for effective communication with others. Generous has trained herself to learn how to cohesively share her thoughts with the world and has become an advocate for other people with Asperger’s, encouraging them to share their intelligence and big ideas with the rest of the world.
“I think in pictures, not words,” says Generous. “To me, words are more like instincts.” She addresses the fact that when she speaks, she often sounds monotonous and lacks enthusiasm in her voice. This often makes the communication of emotion and feeling hard for Generous. She wants to help ease this communication block for other people with Asperger’s. “My dream is for people with autism is to change that,” say Generous, “to remove the roadblocks that keeps them from succeeding.”
Cover image courtesy of TED Talks.
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