Retrophiliac!

Retrophiliac.etsy.com Shopretrophiliac.com

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These are experiences I have and that many other autistic people share. Autism is a spectrum, and not every autistic person experiences the same things.

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Getting an adult autism diagnosis, and recognizing that I was autistic as an adult, gave me a huge realization: the things I’ve experienced my whole life weren’t random. They finally had an explanation. Suddenly, so many things made sense.

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Support independent disability advocacy design.

Running a small disabled-owned business comes with real barriers. Your support helps me keep creating accessibility-focused products that empower individuals and may make interactions easier or help people express themselves, while building community.

Every purchase supports 250+ disability advocacy designs, from communication tools to pins, all designed with lived experience in mind.

retrophiliac.etsy.com

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Happy Disability Pride Month!

If you're looking for a way to celebrate Disability Pride Month, I have Disability Pride flag enamel pins, embroidered patches, and vinyl stickers on sale for July available on my etsy - retrophiliac.etsy.com

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Setting boundaries online can be an important part of protecting your energy and wellbeing, especially when navigating spaces that don’t always understand autistic experiences.

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I made this graphic and wanted to share it given current conversations about autism self-diagnosis, especially around access, understanding, and different lived experiences.

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Unspoken rules show up everywhere in social situations, and I’m often expected to just know them without them ever being said out loud. This is a small example of what that can feel like.

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I've made the difficult decision to discontinue a number of slow-moving products, and many of them are now 40% off while supplies last.

Discontinued items include: • Socks • Colourful lanyards • Magnets • Vancouver street sign pins • Mix and match pronoun pins • Most pride flag pins (excluding Disability Pride designs) • Most pronoun pins, aside from the main black and white versions • Communication sticker sets

Many of these items are still available because they simply haven't sold well enough to justify another production run. Once they're gone, they're gone.

Shop the clearance sale at retrophiliac.etsy.com and grab your favorites before they disappear.

I also have a quantity of wide lanyards available to donate to a local nonprofit organization. These lanyards have a few minor cosmetic marks from storage, such as small oil or dirt spots, but are otherwise in great condition and fully functional. I'd love to see them put to good use rather than discarded.

Vancouver, BC area only. Pickup required. Please send me a message if your organization is interested.

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I’m sharing this because so much of disability accessibility work happens quietly in the background, while trying to stay financially afloat. If you’ve ever wondered how to support this kind of work, visibility and sharing matters more than most people realize.

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Autistic burnout isn’t always obvious. This is what it can look like for me.

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Packed up and mailed these out today. I always love seeing different combinations of identity and advocacy pins heading out into the world. Thank you for supporting my small business and helping these messages reach new people.

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I’m autistic, and this reflects many of my own experiences with communication, change, and sensory processing. It may feel familiar to some autistic people, and not to others.

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Not everyone knows how to start the conversation.

Ally. Friend. Safe Space.

A pin that says "Please Share Your Pronouns With Me" also says:

"Your identity is welcome here."

Happy Pride Month.

retrophiliac.etsy.com

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Sometimes I just need a little extra time to make sense of written information, especially when there’s a lot happening at once or when images and words don’t immediately connect. What can look like delay or disengagement is usually just processing in progress.

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Pronouns. Pride flags. Visibility.

Just a few things worth celebrating this month.

Happy Pride Month!

retrophiliac.etsy.com

Video Description: Animated graphic with a soft blue-to-pink gradient background. The text "Celebrate Pride Month" appears above a rainbow pride flag pin. An arrow points toward the pin before the animation transitions to pronoun pins appearing one by one, including "My Pronouns Are She/Her," "I Use Any Pronouns," and "My Pronouns Are They/Them." The final frames display the message "All Pride Items Sale until the end of June" followed by "Only on retrophiliac.etsy.com." The animation celebrates Pride Month through pride flag and pronoun-themed enamel pins.

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This reframes something I see come up often when disabled people talk about their work and self employment.

What gets labelled as “promotion” is often actually lived experience, access needs and advocacy all at once.

Self employment for many disabled people is not separate from disability, it is part of how we navigate access barriers and build sustainable ways to work.

Sharing this is about context, not defence.

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The problem was never the words “disabled” or “autistic.” It is stigma.