Meet Sid!
Visitors to our website and social media platforms can expect to be entertained by the adventures of a new cartoon character in the coming months, thanks to a very talented young woman from Harold Hill. Jennifer Goldsmith has been a regular visitor to the Autism Hub in Romford for a few months now and after a few conversations with our staff, it emerged that she is a budding cartoonist, among other things.
Jennifer is autistic, but only received her diagnosis quite recently. It’s not uncommon for adults to be diagnosed and in some cases, it can come as a relief, and that was certainly the case with Jennifer. She explained; “I was only diagnosed just over a year ago, so I lived my whole life not knowing I was autistic and wondering what was going on with me. I was wondering why I struggled with stuff as a younger person and why other people didn’t. When I got my diagnosis, I fist bumped the air - suddenly everything fits!”
The 33-year-old has been drawing since she was a child, but it’s not her only skill. She also plays four instruments! She said; `” My parents will tell you that I’ve been drawing since I could pick up a pencil. I’ve only been doing comic strips for about a year or so, but I have been doing pet portraits, life drawings, cartoons for a long time.” She continued; “I play four instruments. I started off with the piano when I was six, and I also know how to play the flute, the banjo and the ukulele. I’ve also been writing from a young age. Stories and poems, and they help me to express my emotions and things I didn’t understand as an autistic person. Emotions are difficult to express as I don’t always know what I am feeling, so I put these emotions into my art.”
To complete the set, Jennifer has also had a novel published, a dramatic thriller which has received good reviews. It makes you wonder where she finds the time to create a cartoon strip! After a few visits to the Hub, she was asked to do some art to decorate the walls in the unit. Jenny takes up the story; “I was asked to do some art for the Autism Hub wall, and I noticed that the logo resembles a man made out of a Sycamore leaf and I wondered if I could do something with this and make him a real person so he could be brough to life and help spread awareness. There’s so much that he can get up to – he can help spread awareness by showing what he does and what he struggles with.”
Sid's creator, Jennifer Goldsmith