Today, April 1, is the beginning of Autism Awareness Month.  As the CEO & Founder of Different Is Cool, I wanted to provide a little insight as to why my husband, Yung, and I started this social movement.

Yung's adult brother has autism.  He has had it since he was 3 years old. Today, he is 36 years old.  

Fast forward 33 years and what we, as a family touched by autism have learned is that our brother isn't autistic - he HAS AUTISM.  He is not defined by his disorder.  But he does experience the world in a different way.  He's funny, he's sweet, he's a gentle soul. And he's cool.  [And as a person without autism let me say this - there are times that clapping your hands and making interesting sounds is indeed a very soothing activity. [See: yoga; meditation].  

So, Yung and I started having conversations with a lot of our friends about being different - and what we discovered is that, at some point, everyone…

From the Smarty Pants creators of TED, comes TED-Ed the new, inspired education initiative aimed at capturing the lessons taught in a classroom and sharing those lessons worldwide.  Their dream is to create a planet of "lifelong learners."

Genius.

They are currently looking  for animators & visualization artists to assist in bringing those lessons to life.

Watch the video and get ready for a revolution...

As they say: "the more you know, the more amazing the world seems..."

Visit the TED-Ed site for all the details...

[Photo courtesy of Nikki Sixx]

A bit about Different Is Cool InnerViews: At Different Is Cool, it is our dream to eradicate prejudice through the celebration & exultation of being different.  We laud people who embrace their individuality, making different cool.

An InnerView is not about what a person does, but who they are, through their thoughts, wishes, aspirations, values and experiences.  We find that when people talk about who they are, not just what they do, they find their commonalities, break down barriers to understanding and appreciate each other more.  It's a virtual group hug.…

Daniel Lanois & Margaret Atwood at Gateway to Bohemia 2011 event

[Photos: Jeremy Buehler]

On Thursday, October 6, 2011 at the Wu loft residence in downtown Toronto, Different Is Cool held its inaugural event, Gateway To Bohemia, a 1930's bohemian ex-pat style of salon party.  Our Co-Chairs for the evening was the incredible, huge-hearted Spitz Family [Maureen, Warren & Kelsey attended].

The food and drink was flowing and there were two eerily prescient tarot card readers to entertain the crowd.

We were blessed to have the generous spirits of literary legend Margaret Atwood and contemporary music…

Another teen suicide due to bullying is in the news this week.  14 year old Jamey Rodemeyer from Buffalo, New York took his own life last Sunday, after suffering years of bullying, particularly cyber-bullying.

Heartbreakingly, Jamey's story is typical of the many stories we have heard in the past two years.  A child is bullied, in person and online, to the breaking point and finds their life so painful, that ending it is the only answer they find.

What should be done?  Legislation? In-school tolerance education for students & teachers?  Is that enough?

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I was bullied as a kid - relentlessly, by a group of girls in my elementary school who followed me around, followed me home, taunting me for being different, threatening to beat me up every day... and…

Different is cool, Huh? Sometimes I think I am completely different then every single person I interact with, and then low and behold I realize we are pretty much the same in so many ways.

I'm the youngest of ten and was raised by Irish Catholic parents who are still married after 63 years together. That makes me different- who the hell has parents that aren't divorced? I'm very lucky to have parents that are not only still togther but are also my biggest fans. They cheer my every move at work, with my partner, dog, house, life....you name it and they are there supporting me.

My father and i had a horrible relationship as I grew up. He was a police officer and i was a punk. As I grew up and came out, he was not…

[Photo: Virginia Tech. Marc Riccobono operates The Blind Driver car]

Dennis Hong (Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering) and his team of engineering students at Virginia Tech create robots and robotic technology.  

Amongst all the cool robots they have created, in 2007, they built a robotic car that drives itself for the DARPA Urban Challenge.  It received much acclaim and won the 3rd place, $500,000 prize.

Upon discovering the autonomous car, The NFB [National Federation for the Blind] contacted Dr. Hong and requested a special project be created to allow the visually impaired the ability to drive.  Dr. Hong thought it was a done deal - just take the autonomous car, put a blind person in it and voila! a blind person is driving.

But that is NOT what the NFB had in…