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Book explores autistic teen's experiences

With all the odds and presumptions against him, one local teenager turned his hardship into a work of literature.
Brant Justilian, up-coming senior of Morgan City High School, recently published his short story novel “Short Stories Through The Eyes of Autism” on May 18. The novel consists of four fictional short stories told through Justilian’s unique autistic personality that touch on the topics of heroism, God, school, and summer activities.
Justilian was born with a rare 18 chromosome deletion and was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age 7. According to the Center for Disease Control, one of each 62 children is diagnosed with ASD with the likelihood being more common among boys (1 in 42) than among girls (1 in 189).
Justilian mentioned that at the age of 4, he couldn’t speak and had very weak muscle control.
While attending school, Justilian needed a teacher aid to help him write. Pushed by his mother and sticking to her motto of “where there is a will, there is a way,” Justilian pursued to continue to follow his passion of storytelling.
Justilian’s inspiration for writing came from his middle school teachers Beth Holley and Sandra Womack of Morgan City Junior High.
With the help of family and friends, Justilian pursued a publisher and was able to get his worked published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
His novel is 54 pages long and is available for purchase on Amazon. Justilian is set to graduate from Morgan City High School next year with plans to attend vocational school to become a better writer.
He is writing another book.

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