The Nude Awakening
A Bare With Me Podcast Newsletter Celebrating, Elevating, and Amplifying Every Body
Issue #3: Celebrating Autism Awareness Month: From Awareness to Understanding
This month, we’re diving into the deep end—of body image, Autism, and the lifelong journey of unlearning what the world taught us about how we should be.
April is Autism Awareness Month, and at BARE with Me, we don’t just raise awareness—we center understanding, celebration, and compassion. Autism isn’t something to fix—it’s something to understand. It’s an invitation to listen harder, love deeper, and create new ways of being that actually feel like home in our bodies and relationships.
🎧 “Naked and Free: Parenting, Autism, and the Body Messages We Unlearn” with Dr. Mal
In this month’s podcast episode, I sit down with the brilliant Dr. Mal, a healer, educator, and mother, for a powerful conversation titled:
"Naked and Free: Parenting, Neurodivergence, and the Body Messages We Unlearn."
Dr. Mal opens up about her own origin story—how she came to understand her body as more than just a vessel, but as a compass. Growing up in spaces that tried to silence or shame her, she spent years piecing together a relationship with herself rooted in softness, truth, and resistance.
But it was parenting her autistic son that brought her body wisdom full circle.
“The world tried to teach me my body was too much—and then I had a child whose body and brain didn’t follow the rules either. That’s when I knew my job wasn’t to ‘fix’ him. It was to free both of us.”
In our conversation, we explore:
What it means to parent with radical compassion
The ways neurodivergence challenges traditional body norms
Why unlearning shame is a full-body experience
And how raising a child who experiences the world differently teaches you to trust your own instincts all over again
This episode is tender, truth-filled, and one of the most human stories we’ve told yet.
💬 Community Reflection:
As you listen this month, consider:
What messages did you inherit about your body—and which ones are you ready to let go of?
How can we make more room for neurodivergent joy, softness, and expression in our families and communities?
🌍 National & International Organizations
Autism Speaks – autismspeaks.org
Offers toolkits, research, advocacy, and family services.The Autism Society – autism-society.org
Connects families to local chapters and support resources.CDC’s Autism Information Center – cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism
Offers developmental milestones, early signs, and diagnostic info.Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) – autisticadvocacy.org
Run by and for autistic people, with a strong focus on rights, inclusion, and empowerment.
Thanks for being part of this bare, bold, beautiful community.
Stay curious, stay compassionate, stay free.
— Jay, Host of BARE with Me