16-Year-Old with Autism Writes Best-Selling Book About His Experiences
Elizabeth Morey
Charlie Michael Baker was diagnosed with autism when he was six years old. He's only ten years removed from that diagnosis, but he's already working hard to guide other people with this disorder through the most difficult areas of their lives.
The 16-year-old from Leyland, England, says his diagnosis helped the adults in his life see the reasons for what were previously viewed as "naughty" behaviors. All the same, his autistic tendencies made it difficult for him to interact in a positive way with adults and peers. He has been bullied most of his life by other people around his age, both verbally and physically.
"I have had packets of Post-It notes thrown at me, I have been physically assaulted, I have had footballs kicked at my head, and this was from a young age," he recalls.
But he hasn't let these difficulties stop him from doing amazing things. He's become a social media influencer with one million followers, a model, a youth counselor, and an entrepreneur. And most recently, Charlie has written and published four books in the span of just a few short months, three of which are about his experiences with autism.
"I wrote my books to raise awareness and money for autism," Charlie says. "Autism is often misjudged, and it’s just not fair. I don’t agree with bullies. I don’t agree with the media profiting off lies about autism either, and that’s why I decided to write my books."
The young man hopes his books will help other people with autism learn how to navigate the difficult times in their lives and help people who are not on the spectrum better understand what it's like to be autistic. He has kept all of the books short and sweet for people with short attention spans or difficulty with reading skills.
"My books are no longer than 60 pages. This helps a lot, as my audience is ages from 13 to mid-adulthood," Charlie explains. "My audience doesn’t really have the time to be reading huge 300 - 500 page ‘traditional’ books."
The first book, Charlie Baker: Autism And Me, is a memoir written in a "chatty" text-style tone. The best-selling book has sold over 12,000 copies so far.
Of course, Charlie could have cashed in on the royalties from the book, but instead he's decided to use the money to do even more to help other people on the spectrum. He donates all of the proceeds to charities that assist people with autism through research or by providing carers for those who need extra assistance.
Charlie then went on to write two more books about autism: Charlie Michael Baker: The Influencer Advocating Autism and Charlie Baker: Inside My Autistic Mind. He describes the third book as his "most informative" one for people on the spectrum. He also donates the money he makes from those books to charity and has raised more than £400,000 (US $500,000) total in only about six months. His goal is to donate £1,000,000 to charity.
But that isn't to say that Charlie doesn't get anything back from his writing. He's been recognized by celebrities, including neurodivergent advocate Christine McGuinness, ITV’s Vanessa Feltz, and Kylie Jenner (the latter of which even offered him a paid partnership). He's been interviewed for several news stories, including one article by medium.com that introduced him as a "z-list celebrity." He's also received a great deal of satisfaction just in reading what fans have said about his work:
"I had a man reach out to my team via my platforms, and he said that he was contemplating suicide before reading my book," Charlie reports. "My writing. My books. I saved a man’s life, which will forever be crazy to me!
Charlie, who currently works as a bar-back cleaning and stocking items at a local bar, has big plans for his future. On top of his dream career of becoming a flight attendant and traveling the globe, he also hopes to continue modeling and writing books that help and inspire others. He would especially like to write a book about what it's like to be a person with autism in the public eye and another book about his anxiety.
Charlie has plans to speak to the prime minister and other government officials about what can be done about bullying in schools, because it is the leading killer of high-school-aged students in the UK. Then he hopes to branch into the world of television to spread his message even further.
"I could never be a Kardashian (big *red bottom* shoes to fill), but I’d like to get into maybe daytime television, so your equivalent of the Ellen Show," he says.
The way forward may be just as hard as the path to get here has been, especially with the new issue arising of safety and security for a young man who is very new to fame. But Charlie is not afraid to move forward.
"I like being different, and I’m showing that with literally everything I do and put out into the world," he says.
Congratulations on these major accomplishments, Charlie! We can't wait to see what comes next for you.
Charlie's books are available at LULU.com, Charliembaker.com, and Apple Books.
