My name is Kelly Lynch and I’m a Mother of three boys, my middle son, Cameron, is on the autistic spectrum.

In February 2021 I posted this photo of Cameron on my Instagram page Lynch_Mob_Mumma my page dedicated to living with a child with additional needs. I posted the photo of Cam wearing a hoodie I made up for him with #AutismClub.

The idea was to prevent people making the wrong assumptions. When I’m out and about with Cameron and he’s portraying some unusual behaviour such as stimming, humming, walking up and down in lines, jumping up and down and sometimes touching or hitting others, I very often feel the need to explain why he’s behaving in this way. So, I thought, rather than telling everyone my child is autistic I’ll create something myself that will tell people for me! I don’t HAVE to explain this to anyone but I like to, I don’t want people thinking he’s naughty or I’m a bad mother so I’d rather be loud and proud...

Soon after I first published the photo, I received an amazing response from other mums and families whose children also suffer from autism and I realised there is a huge demand for this concept as well as raising awareness to help people understand and most importantly to be kind!

Come join the club. Everyone is welcome!