I sometimes watch my husband sleep in the early morning hours. By tiny bits of light escaping through the cracks in the blinds, my eyes trace the lines of his face, and I smile at the sight of his tousled hair. Married for 15 years and together for 17 now, I am familiar with the signs he is waking up before his alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m.

At six years old, Charlie Hernandez is learning his numbers and letters. He idolizes his father and is obsessed with trains and organizing his toys. Charlie is a typical little boy, who happens to have special needs, says his mother, Anna Hernandez. He’s also the inspiration for Charlie’s Project, a clothing company built around leggings founded by Hernandez in 2012 with a mission to raise awareness for the conditions that affect her son: Down syndrome and Autism.

Editor's Choice Essay-- In the winter of 2011, in the dressing room at Target, I get caught up in an existential crisis. While trying on bathing suits, I find myself toggling between two drastically different views of myself: one is informed by the harsh words my mother verbalized so many years ago, probably without meaning to hurt me or realizing I was internalizing everything she said; the other by my young daughter’s unconditionally loving view of me.

Jenn Mclellan used to think her body was broken. She’d bought into the idea that, because of her size, she couldn’t be beautiful. She exists, she said, in a body that society finds unacceptable, and knowing this had a profound effect on her emotional relationship with her physical self. “Then I got pregnant with my son and had a natural childbirth that changed everything,” says the 37-year-old Albuquerque-based writer, who blogs at . “I realized the strength and beauty my body possesses.

When I was 22 years old, I was eating healthy and working out five days a week—and I still put on 50 pounds in a six-month period. Weight gain is one of the telltale symptoms of hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid, a condition that occurs when your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough of some important hormones. Because it’s more common in women, my then-boyfriend suggested I head to my doctor to get it checked out. I did, and my doctor diagnosed me with hypothyroidism, which I’ve controlle

I really wish other people would stop getting mad on my behalf. Every year, it’s the same thing… and every year, I find myself sighing with the frustration of being told my opinion is wrong —or worse yet, makes me a “problematic minority”— for having the audacity to tell my white friends I believe painting their faces for Día de los Muertos is not cultural appropriation.

Peas. I hate peas, I thought. I hate peas, and they are her favorite vegetable. I had been so worried my hatred of peas would somehow pass onto Eliana, that she would despise them if I had given her a reason. I wasn’t going to give her a reason to be afraid of swimming, though.

I'm the one with the emotional baggage. She's the one with the batwings.

If I hadn’t been diagnosed with ADHD, I don't think my daughter would have been diagnosed with high-functioning autism. I would have just nodded my head, setting aside my suspicions when friends texted links to articles about similarities between the gifted and autistic. I would have said things like “You’re right” and “What was I thinking?” when people asked me why I would want to chance sticking a label on my child for life.

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Why I'll continue to be a voice for my daughter's autism.

For starters, it’s not anyone else’s damn business how we parent or where our child’s attention is when out in public. Secondly, I have severe ADHD and am always playing with or looking at my iPhone in order to self-regulate after my medication has worn off. And since Eliana’s diagnosis late last year, we’ve learned the value in never inserting our own perceptions and narrative onto others. The only story any of us truly know is our own.

I figured no one would assume we were one of the many homeless taking refuge in the covered subway platforms. What I had not prepared for was the story strangers were writing in their heads when they saw my face — with brilliantly red rashes and swollen cheeks — and the sleeping child.

I refuse to applaud such a token, misguided response. Stanford officials are making a big deal about a small change that doesn’t address the actual problem.

Huffington Post (Australia) Is your child struggling with writing? Before you place blame, find out if your child may be displaying symptoms of dysgraphia, aka disabled handwriting.