Did you know that before I wrote my book, I have always wanted to be a race car driver? Any kind of racing for that matter. If it involves race car helmets or any kind of helmet, then that means I am about to go really fast!

My parents were very serious about me wearing a bike helmet whenever I ride my bicycle. It's the law and it's for safety. Later on after growing out my hair for a bit, I began thinking that helmet hair looks pretty cool! Even when my hair is already spiked up.

I have been very into automobiles when I was very little; the little toy cars and trucks or any kind of thing with wheels that go fast. What I would do is whenever I play with my toy cars, I would sometimes align them in specific ways. Then, what I do next is that after I put them in their places, I then move around looking at the cars in a scenic kind of way; almost like a photographer would do, except I didn't know how to really use a camera that well back then. But it's true, I would look at the cars...

I love naming things! One of the many things Tyler McNamer enjoys doing. Why is this little task so interesting and fascinating?

For fun, whenever I have a stuffed animal or a stature figure or a transportation vehicle like a bicycle; I would want to be attached to them even more by giving them names.

Here are some examples and reasons why I gave them their names

• Red Bike: "F2" (Function 2 stickers on my bike)
• Snowboard: "Earth Spinner" (When I look down at my board, the world looks like it's spinning fast)
• Fit Meter: "Tiny Trainer" (The Fit Meter may be for calculating steps and calories being burned along with how high I have climbed, but the Fit Meter is like my little buddy gadget)
• Callie & Marie: "Little C & Big M" (Two figurines based on the hit video game, Splatoon by Nintendo. The reason why I named them Little C & Big M only on the figures is because of my last name. McNamer Big M... Little C)
• Pen: "Wilbur" (Named after Wilbur Wright of the Wright...

Tyler's School Presentation Video

My first professional public speaking engagement was in a middle school. Kopachuck warmly welcomed me to their event in which they have hired me to give some incite in autism and to share some motivation for the summer.

I can spend hours looking back and feeling down about how I have handled everything there, such as my movements after the speech and the way I styled my hair; not the most skilled hairstylist back then. But I would rather talk about good things about the event, and plus, it was my first professional public speaking event in which I was hired to speak and sell some books!

My dad told me that middle school students are one of the hardest groups to speak in front of. Couldn’t really figure out why that is, but I knew that I have do something to entertain and educate these kids. So I got on it with the outline and Dad coached me on how to use the outline well. Part of the outline contained some fun entertaining information about the...

One of the most fascinating body parts. Eyes give off the most emotion, and I do tend to study them oftentimes during my off days when I’m not working.

During my free time, when it’s cold and rainy outside, I would make these little avatars on the Wii U called Miis. These Mii characters show off what the person look like based on their facial features. Been making over three hundred of these characters, and there have been some good feedback from my creations. The secret has always been the same for me; hair first, eyes last.

Mii or not, people may look a certain way or what they want to look like, but I feel like their true identities rely on the window of the soul, the eyes.

When I was very little, I really did not like looking at people’s eyes. Eye contact was pretty darn difficult! The reason why is because I felt like they give out way too information, and that I felt like I was lower than them and that I was in big trouble; that’s why I would look away...

Getting hungry just thinking about it.

When I was much younger, I would eat nothing but peanut butter jelly sandwiches, cereal, pizza pockets, and spaghetti. That’s basically it. Today, I’m eating a whole wide variety of things to eat!

Food may play a huge roll in the autism spectrum; remember the part about having a routine and that change is very difficult to those who have autism? Well, that’s no different when it comes to food. You get so used to eating the same thing that it’s hard to expand the taste buds and try new food items.

How did I go from a picky eater to eating just about anything the world feeds me? My parents encouraged me to try new things; if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have it for a while, but then as I grew older, I started to like the food item I tried. It may sound like the fact that we’re all the same when it comes to food, but autism takes a much longer time to be flexible with different tastes. Never give up when...

You’ve seen them in comic books, movies, television shows, video games, toys, and so on. What makes a superhero? Well, besides superpowers, every hero has one thing in common, they save lives.

As the years go on since the thirties, the comics develop a more personal story to tell for each hero, and tell these stories in different ways. For example, after Superman crashlanded in Kansas, what happened after that? He sure lived in his adopted home for a long time before he donned the red cape.

Every one of these heroes have some story to tell before they became heroes. All of them relatable in a way for completely different people. Realistic but with many fantasy twists to make the stories very enjoyable. Batman’s parents were killed, and he spent his whole life fighting similar criminals that cause havoc in Gothem; Flash’s mother was killed, moved on as a scientist, and then became the Flash fighting crime. Later on, there was a story where he was fast enough to...

It’s everywhere and it’s powerful! Knowledge starts when we’re all born. We all know what’s up in the world and how there are lessons all over the place. When a lot of kids think of knowledge, they think of school

School itself can be scary; let’s be honest, first time, during, and ending it all. Recently, I have learned a whole lot of very fascinating stories about school starring kids with or without autism. Some say schools destroy creativity, some say schools don’t help out with bullying, some say the knowledge is not required for living life and that it is to hard to understand.

It is understandable why people would be scared of school when putting these to mind; another thing I have to mention is that someone with autism would have an even harder time for them and for those around them during school time. I remember standing on desks, move around the desks, bumping heads, screaming, and rolling on the floor! Yeah, I was indeed very bizarre...

Art

Drawing, sculpting, and writing are examples of art.

I used to think that writing never really was considered an artform until I was sixteen. When I think of ‘art’, I think of the stuff you see at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) or anything that shows off a picture of some sorts. I’ve seen some drawings done by people with autism, and most of these drawings are no different than any of the other creative art that has being shown, but the meaning behind these drawings are even more surprising. For example, a man draws an entire city at bird’s eye view because of his uncanny photographic memory of the time he was in a helicopter ride. Another thing I saw recently is someone drew their favorite fictional made up characters next to the autism awareness ribbon logo, or another drawing where characters put all the colorful pieces together. To me, there are stories behind every one of these drawings and different kinds of artwork.

Photography is another type of...

Wait, what? This is a bit unexpected! What’s the meaning of this? I’ll tell you.

Reality television is a type of television show that depicts the lives of one person or persons. Why does this spark my interest? I don’t watch that kind of content on a daily bases, but is still fascinating. I tend to dissect the stuff I do not enjoy as much to understand why it can be entertaining.

I had a quick part-time job at a candy store on a December doing the basics such as sorting candy, taking out the trash, taking out the recycling, and making boxes for the fudge. I met a new friend who helped out with the boxes and putting the Bon-Bon sticker on the boxes and we talked about what we enjoy doing on our days off, she mentioned a reality TV show, and me being all clueless dug in deep on the subject. I knew it was popular, but never had the idea of actually asking questions about it.

People watching people living! It was then I put on a smug face and learned more about it...

It’s the stuff you put on everyday.

Fashion itself interests me a whole lot. Even though I like to keep it basic most of the time with my taste in fashion, I feel that clothing really expresses a person’s personality. Edgy, bold, contemporary, goth, retro, flirty, and many other different kinds of style tastes that are out there in the world; everyone likes to have a preference on who they like to be represented by.

It’s a neat way of understand people, and who they are and where they come from, but for me personally, I like many of these different styles and hope that one day I’ll try them all. I don’t believe the outside is what makes people; and that I know that there are people who are insufferable, but in their hearts, they are full of kindness and generosity. I would grow a goatee when I’m not doing anything special outside the house, and I enjoy growing it. Sometimes certain clothing styles fits a goatee well, but then Dad and Stepmom,...