Chris Bonnello is an autistic advocate, author and former teacher, having taught in mainstream primary and specialist education. Since 2015, he has become a national and international speaker on autism issues, and the multi-award-winning writer behind autisticnotweird.com. He is also the author of the Underdogs novels, a near-future war series featuring autistic and otherwise neurodiverse heroes.
Bonnello was first assessed for autism in 1989, at the age of four. Despite a damning report into his deficiencies concerning speech, expressive language and social competence, he did not receive a diagnosis due to misconceptions about autism in 1989.
At the age of ten, an educational psychologist reported him as having a “slightly odd personality”. He grew up believing himself to be the weird kid, until his Asperger Syndrome diagnosis finally came at the age of 25. Since then, he has been able to turn his attitude around and define himself by his strengths rather than his weaknesses, and encourages other autistic people to see their own strengths.
Having qualified as a teacher and worked in primary education, he left mainstream teaching and launched Autistic Not Weird in April 2015, to share his insights from both a personal and professional perspective. He later re-entered teaching as a specialist education tutor (later becoming a teacher in an autism-specific school), before leaving teaching permanently to become a full-time autistic advocate.
At time of writing (August 2023) autisticnotweird.com has had nearly 3 million page hits, and his Facebook community stands at over 170,000 followers. Bonnello also has followings on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Meanwhile, follower support on Patreon has allowed him to write for Autistic Not Weird for a living.
Bonnello delivers talks (nationally and internationally), has been nominated for six awards to date (winning four), has played chess internationally (winning nothing), competitively speedsolves Rubik’s cubes (personal record 12.009 seconds) captains his local Boys’ Brigade company, published his first autism-related non-fiction book in 2016, and the first novel in the Underdogs series was released in May 2019 – two more books have followed to date, one of which was joint-runner-up in The Guardian’s 2020 Not the Booker Prize, and the series has one more novel to follow.
His personality remains slightly odd.
Accolades
| Shortlisted | National Diversity Awards 2017 | Positive Role Model (Disability) |
| Winner | Autism Hero Awards 2017 | Top Journalism Award |
| Winner | Learning Disability and Autism Leaders’ List 2018 | Advocacy, Policy and Media |
| Winner | Autism Hero Awards 2018 | Online Social Network Award |
| Winner | National Autistic Society Professionals Awards 2019 | Outstanding Achievement by an Individual on the Autism Spectrum |
| Shortlisted | BAPS SEND Blog Awards 2020 | Blog Post with Biggest Impact* |
| Joint runner-up | The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize 2020 | Underdogs: Tooth and Nail |
| Shortlisted | The Speaker Awards 2023 | Sustainability and Positive Impact Speaker of the Year |
*Post nominated: Fifty pieces of advice from an autistic adult, written for autistic children
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Published works
What We Love Most About Life: insights from 150 young people across the autism spectrum (non-fiction), 2016. Art/design by Nancy J. Price.
‘Hide and Seek‘ (short story), in Monster Anthology, 2016.
‘The Book of the Bystander‘ (short story), in Bystander, 2017.
Underdogs (novel), 2019. Published by Unbound.
Underdogs: Tooth and Nail (novel), 2020. Published by Unbound.
Underdogs: Acceleration (novel), 2022. Published by Unbound.
What Do You Love Most About Life? Insights from 150 autistic minds (non-fiction), to be published 2023. Art/design by Nancy J. Price.
Alfie Smith the Speedcuber (children’s story), 2023. To be published by Collins Learning.
Underdogs: Uprising (novel), 2024. To be published by Unbound.
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Academia
BSc (hons) Mathematics with Education (University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2007)
PGCE Primary Teaching (Nottingham Trent University, 2010)
MA Creative Writing (Nottingham Trent University, 2017)
ABC Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Concepts (Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute, 2020)
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Are you tired of characters with special needs being tokenised and based on stereotypes, or being the victims rather than the heroes? This novel series may interest you!Underdogs, a near-future dystopia series where the heroes are teenagers with special needs, is a character-driven war story which pitches twelve people against an army of millions, balancing intense action with a deeply developed neurodiverse cast.
Book one can be found here:
Amazon UK | Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Audible (audiobook version)
Review page on Goodreads
Chris Bonnello is a national and international autism speaker, available to lead talks and training sessions from the perspective of an autistic former teacher. For further information please click here (opens in new window).
Autistic Not Weird on Facebook
Autistic Not Weird on YouTube
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Copyright © Chris Bonnello 2015-2022