A note to US-based customers: All Lit Up is pausing print orders to the USA until further notice. Read more

Motherness

By (author): Julie M. Green

“As more women are recognizing their own neurodivergence, Julie has gifted us with a beautifully written and incredibly relatable memoir. Readers will come away feeling seen, understood, and never again alone.” — Emily W. King, PhD, child psychologist and author of the Learn with Dr. Emily Substack

A funny, unflinchingly honest, and deeply compassionate memoir about one woman’s experience of raising an autistic child while discovering she is also “on the spectrum”

Almost 10 years after learning that her son is autistic, Julie Green was also diagnosed, shedding light on a lifetime of feeling othered and misunderstood. Motherness traces Julie’s journey from childhood to early motherhood, when she must advocate for her son while navigating her own struggles.

With more girls and women being diagnosed in the last decade — many of them later in life — the face of autism is changing. Motherness provides a rich, intensely personal account of what it is like to be autistic, through the lens of both a mother and child. Topics include sensory processing, meltdowns and shutdowns, masking, empathy, alexithymia, bullying, elopement, special interests, disordered eating, gender diversity, twice exceptionality, and more.

Motherness is a story about accepting your child while learning to accept yourself. This extraordinary, groundbreaking memoir speaks to the great challenges and great joys of autism, providing valuable insights to parents of autistic children, adults newly diagnosed or questioning their place on the spectrum, and anyone seeking a greater understanding of neurodiversity.

Reviews

nttt

“Julie Green’s debut memoir Motherness is informative, offering interesting insights into a multi-faceted history of autism spectrum disorder, and it is also a deeply felt, personal account of what it is like to raise a neurodivergent child as a neurodivergent mother. But much greater than the sum of those parts, Green’s gorgeous writing carries this deeply human story, which is filled with curiosity, honesty, humour, and above all, love.” —Harriet Alida Lye, author of Natural Killer and Let It Destroy You

ntt

“Motherness is all about loving the child you’re raising and accepting the parent you are. A fiercely honest and wildly compassionate memoir.”—Ann Douglas, author of Parenting Through the Storm

ntt

“Motherness is powerful, thought-provoking, and frankly, impossible to put down. It left me questioning my own assumptions and considering how we can create a world where autistic individuals are truly understood, supported, and celebrated.” — Ingrid Smith, Parent Educator and Coach

ntt

“Motherness is that rarest of books—a memoir that looks inward but also out, shining a light on the personal in a way that refracts out to dazzle us all. In her unflinching and yet wholly tender focus on seeing—seeing and celebrating her child and then also, ultimately, seeing and celebrating herself—Julie Green has charted a path for all of us, parent and non-parent alike, to follow into a brilliant, better world.” —Amanda Leduc, author of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space

ntt

“Raw, honest, and thought-provoking, Motherness will resonate with any neurodivergent parent who recognizes parts of themselves in their child and wants to embrace these common threads to foster deeper connection and acceptance.” — Debbie Reber, founder of Tilt Parenting and author of Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World

ntt

“As more women are recognizing their own neurodivergence, Julie has gifted us with a beautifully written and incredibly relatable memoir. Readers will come away feeling seen, understood, and never again alone.” — Emily W. King, PhD, child psychologist and author of the Learn with Dr. Emily Substack

ntt

“Motherness is a beautifully told, deeply validating account of late-discovered autism and the intersecting experience of being both an autistic woman and the mother of an autistic child. This is more than a memoir, it’s a mirror for those who have long felt unseen, bringing visibility, validation, and hope to a new generation navigating late discovery, motherhood, and identity.” — Catherine Asta, author of Rediscovered and host of The Late Discovered Club podcast

ntt

“Julie M. Green’s Motherness is a beautifully vulnerable memoir that explores the often unspoken layers of parenting, neurodivergence, and the radical acceptance that love demands. Subtitled A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood, and Radical Acceptance, this book is a quiet revelation—and an important read for anyone who wants to better understand the lived experience of autism, especially within families. Green writes with a voice that is raw, poetic, and grounded.” — Curating Edits

ntt

Awards

  • Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2026, Short-listed
  • Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award 2025, Short-listed
  • Excerpts & Samples ×
    There are no other resources for this book.

    Reader Reviews

    Accessibility Detail

    Single logical reading order
    Publisher contact for further accessibility information
    ascsofficer@ecwpress.com
    Language tagging provided
    Print-equivalent page numbering
    Table of contents navigation
    EPUB Accessibility Specification 1.0 AA

    Details

    Dimensions:

    288 Pages
    8.5in * 5.5in * 0.66in
    0.77lb

    Published:

    September 23, 2025

    Publisher:

    ECW Press

    ISBN:

    9781770418028

    Language:

    eng

    No author posts found.

    Related Blog Posts

    There are no posts with this book.