Emotions
Fitting in

Do you ever feel different from other kids?That you don't fit in? That’s how it is for Robin.

Robin was born with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that affects how her brain works. It makes communicating difficult for her. Here’s how Robin handles being different.

“I was wired so differently in my brain that I never really fit in,” Robin says. “I remember standing in the lunch line. Everyone around me was talking, and I was staring at the floor. I didn’t know how to start a conversation. Sometimes I was teased. I finally just avoided the cafeteria and went to the library to study.

Growing up, Robin knew she was different. She did well in school. She is really smart. But it didn't matter, because she didn't feel smart. She just wanted to be accepted.

“I felt stupid,” she says, “because I couldn’t figure out how to be around other kids. Especially in groups. Everything I said came out wrong. Other kids laughed or talked about me when I could hear them. They made fun of how my body jerked when I got excited. I couldn’t help it. My body just did that because of the way my brain worked. It made me do things that looked weird. It hurt when people made fun of me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make myself be like other kids.”

A couple of older girls in Robin's school were nice to her. They knew she wanted to learn to play basketball better, so they practiced with her. They didn’t care that she was different.

“They accepted me and showed me it was ok to be different,” Robin says. “They said to try to ignore people who teased or tried to change me. They told me people who tease are just trying to make themselves feel better. When I got stuck, they listened and helped me figure out what to do.

It can really help to talk to a teacher, parent, or another adult you trust about how you are feeling. Robin talked to a teacher.

"My French teacher used to let me stay and talk after extra help was over,” Robin says. “She was very nice and never judged me. Maybe she knew I was a good person, even though I was different from the others. Sometimes learning was as much a struggle as the social stuff. Having her there was a huge help to me."

Robin also found other ways to manage when things got hard.

“This sounds silly,” she says, “but I always had a best friend at home, because I always had a dog. When no one else understood me, she was there to love me. She never judged me for being different, and she was always waiting for me when I’d had a bad day.