The Autistic Innovator :ri:

My name is Ashley Lauren Spencer. Owner of The Autistic Innovator. Supporting the autistic, ADHD and neurodivergent community since 2020. 0 trackers online store for our community. Also the owner of the autistics.life mastodon instance. #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #ADHD

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npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj

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AutisticInnovator@autistics-life.mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsvpjca98yndjp8akm65p7t3lc2ju4a0awj2vext6q6c0tjjaacwdgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds9jxxl4

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relay.damus.io

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npub1cr9362wfxmyz0mdh4gruhrls49et6l6ay5ejvh5p4s7h99mmsu6skz78cj

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Last Notes

2026-05-25 15:30:38 UTC

I have a strong aversion to Walmart brand food now after how sick it made me. All that processed food started giving me headaches, and now I have acne. I haven't had any acne in years, not since my regular diet was garbage food and energy drinks.
I ate these gummy sharks with no food dye in them, and it made me so sick now I hate candy.
There was this Walmart brand cherry cola I drank, and every time I drank it I got really sick. I missed on the label it had Red 40 dye, and that's why I got so sick drinking it.

2026-05-22 17:03:48 UTC

My brain is a machine. All these ideas I've never thought of before are flooding into my mind like I'm channeling something. Feels like creative freedom.
All my weekly emails were written like personal letters, and in this case they actually are personal emails, because I am emailing all 749 people on my email list individually to let them know I've moved, and ask if they want to stay on the list.
I'd think nothing would annoy people more than sending a mass email after 3 months of silence.

2026-05-16 15:05:31 UTC

I’ve been wearing my tank top inside out since yesterday and it took me over 24 hours to notice. :blob_cat_flop:

2026-05-14 00:31:50 UTC

Now that I know the chew industry’s secret that most are 3D printing chews, I’ve seen the code language on how they get around it.
“durable, chew safe materials”
“food grade materials”
Materials = 3D printing
The ONLY chew safe ‘material’ is silicone, and silicone made the right way in sterile specialty silicone manufacturing facilities. If they’re going out of their way to say anything but silicone, it’s 3D printed.
I’m on to all of them now.

2026-05-11 21:35:49 UTC

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I think why is half the industry, if not more, 3D printing their chews.
It took me half a year and thousands of dollars to manufacture just my one Heart Chew Necklace in 2 colors, and do it properly by going to the best of the best silicone manufacturer in China.
Our entire chew industry is run by neurotypicals who don’t know what it’s like to have chew stims. They don’t care they’re selling autistic people 3D printed plastic chews made with toxic filaments. They can flood the market with chews fast.
They probably all hate me because not only am I the only autistic designed chew in the industry, but I’m likely the only one who manufactured a chew the right way. My Heart Chew Necklace exposes their scam just by existing and selling.

2026-05-11 21:12:46 UTC

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I’ve seen chew designs that have intricate detailed designs on the chew, and it’s baffled me how did they manufacture that chew.
Silicone can make tactile texture, it cannot make detailed designs.
Those intricate design chews are all 3D printed, that’s how.
#ActuallyAutistic

2026-05-11 20:42:10 UTC

If you see a chew that is shiny, it’s not silicone it’s plastic. Silicone is dull and doesn’t shine.
If you see a metallic color chew, that’s toxic paint from 3D printing.
Thin outline chews are impossible to make with silicone.
AI hallucination products in the chew industry is half the industry.
Now you know how to identify the chew scams for yourself.
#ActuallyAutistic

2026-05-04 20:38:42 UTC

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@nprofile…rtl5 My body too. I had to turn the AC up to 74 because I’m freezing, and I’m still cold. I have very little fat on my body. Lack of money because of business sabotage has hit me quite hard.

2026-05-04 19:29:13 UTC

I thought my 1pm cognition crash was just my ADHD meds wearing off, but 2 days in a row I began the day early morning with a lot of calories, and my cognition was so clear and active. Today, I ran out of food, so now my cognition is shit. So this whole time my slow cognition was caused by nothing other than actual starvation.

2026-05-04 16:42:51 UTC

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This is the most wtf price drop I’ve seen in this Walmart rollbacks list. That is some significant scamming Texas SNAP.
https://autistics-life.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/517/298/167/518/804/original/46884d7c51237049.png

2026-05-04 16:21:30 UTC

Now that in Texas SNAP can’t be used to buy soda and sugary drinks, the 12 pack brand name soda prices dropped from $9 to $5. Energy drink prices also dropped. Candy prices and fruit snacks have all dropped too now that no one can use SNAP to buy candy. I don’t know if chips were included in that SNAP law, but those also dropped. Bags of Lays chips went from $6.46 to $2.50. Family size boxes of brand name cereal went from $7.49 to $4.44.
I’m looking at Walmart’s rollbacks list and 98% is stuff people can no longer buy with SNAP in Texas. Walmart was massively scamming Texas taxpayers with inflated prices paid for with Texas state money.

2026-05-03 22:50:17 UTC

I can see every time a scraper bot stops by to steal content from my website.
3rd party analytics hides that stuff, and mixes it in with real people.
Server side analytics is much better, and no trackers.

2026-04-29 15:46:35 UTC

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@nprofile…rtl5
https://autistics-life.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/488/767/172/932/391/original/a41cd63a690335d5.png

2026-04-29 15:31:16 UTC

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@nprofile…rtl5 The article you linked assumes Google analytics is connected to the website because pretty much every website on the internet, including government websites, uses Google Analytics, but I do not. I don’t have analytics at all to keep data harvesters out.

2026-04-29 15:25:17 UTC

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@nprofile…rtl5 It’s because I don’t have a single Google product connected that can send that chrome interaction data back to Google. No Google analytics, no Google ads, no Google Merchant connected, no Google fonts, no Google Pay, no reCAPTCHA, absolutely every single Google product is banned from my website. Google can see the click from search but the visitor disappears into the abyss once the page loads because there is no data to send back to Google to analyze how Chrome users interact.

2026-04-29 14:58:54 UTC

This makes me very happy. I ran a PageSpeed Insights test on my Shop page. That “No Data” means I have successfully kept Google completely out of my website. Data harvesting Google and data harvesting competitors are getting absolutely nothing.
And with no email list to buy, and no payment processor tracking scripts on my checkout page, no one can get anything.
https://autistics-life.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/488/557/786/648/981/original/22c4800c573a42c3.png

2026-04-27 01:35:43 UTC

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@nprofile…rtl5 I feel like I should know what that acronym means but I do not. What is it?

2026-04-27 01:28:50 UTC

I’m really liking WooCommerce. There are SO many plugins that don’t add trackers. Some do, but the Wordpress.org plugins site makes them disclose if they send data to their servers, and many do. It’s really easy to limit trackers. Shopify forced so many trackers. All their websites are slow because of how many trackers there are. I would have never been able to choose just only 1 website allowed to have a tracker. I also would have never been able to have a Shopify cookie banner telling everyone to reject cookies. I love how much I can control my website too. It feels great owning everything.

2026-04-20 17:51:32 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3 I think in their case they now see authenticity as profitable which is why they’ve hijacked my entire identity.

2026-04-20 16:52:49 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3 The one who is most obsessed with destroying me does that. They go into forums, Reddit, and Facebook groups pretending to be an autistic peer recommending their products. It’s obvious it’s actually someone with their brand because the “peer” recommendations sound like brand marketing speak, and no one talks like that.
The industry all hate me because my actual genuine caring about the people they’ve been preying on for years naturally exposes them as predators.

2026-04-20 16:26:40 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3 Not even ads. They called it “200 supportive posts” they think being supportive is a marketing gimmick. Horrible.

2026-04-20 16:21:14 UTC

I got a cold email from a company offering services to go into online forum spaces where neurodivergent people go to seek support amongst each other, and wanted me to pay them to interact with neurodivergent people’s posts and create posts to build brand awareness. That disgusts me. Their paid “service” is everything that is wrong with my industry and extremely predatory. I will not pay someone to turn me into the very thing I despise.

2026-04-18 15:32:49 UTC

I finally took my Christmas tree down last night. I’ve been unable to have the energy and ability to force myself to take it down, so it just stood there. I had a 15 minute spurt of energy last night so I took it down while I had the opportunity.
Combination of ADHD and stress overwhelm that made it take 4 months to finally put it away.

2026-04-16 02:17:14 UTC

I’m scary thin. All those months of sabotage had a very real physical cost. There is no fat around my collarbone, base of my neck, shoulder bones, shoulder joints, my rib cage shows through my chest, my spine sticks out, the screw in my pelvis sticks out, my legs are so thin. I don’t have a scale so I don’t know exactly how much I weigh, but I am at least 20lbs minimum underweight.
I downloaded a calorie counting app and I need to eat 2,000 calories a day to gain 1lb a week. I figured out there are frozen foods that are super high calories for cheap, so that it’s basically eating 3 meals a day to reach 2,000 for only $5.
It’s going to take a long time. Very scary to see in the meantime. I have a long way to go before I can look like my profile photo again.

2026-04-10 00:52:49 UTC

It’s kind of ironic that since Dinah wanted time to herself today and wasn’t micromanaging me making sure I was working, I was less productive today. I did pack orders and go to the post office though.
I’m dependent on a cat to tell me what to do :blob_cat_flop:

2026-04-07 21:05:21 UTC

Old photo I found of me on my camera. I think I took this one in 2024.
I needed a new non-Canva edited, new non-scraped photo for my website.
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/438/320/940/765/original/b133a66cb48822ba.png

2026-04-07 15:35:19 UTC

I totaled up the new freedom business expenses compared to old expenses. My business was spending over $200 a month on being data harvested. My freedom expenses are so low now. Having a 0 trackers store is saving me a lot of money.

2026-04-03 08:21:28 UTC

The data harvesters are very angry.
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/116/339/799/230/182/678/original/3be6220948350c2c.png

2026-04-02 21:44:08 UTC

The company I used to use for print on demand clothing back in the Shopify store is now integrating with Amazon Freight shipping. I’m so glad I decided print on demand is a security risk. Now Amazon gets to harvest customer data of everyone who orders something printed with that company. Fuck that.

2026-04-02 11:52:56 UTC

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@nprofile…nmr0 Those questions read more like one of those what is your personality type quizzes.

2026-03-25 11:11:03 UTC

I’m glad Mastodon exists. Especially this autistics.life server created in December 2022.
During a time when I have to go to extremes to avoid being data harvested to stop who I am being sold to anyone who wants to pretend to be me, I still have the fediverse. I had to delete all social media apps, everything. I know this server doesn’t data harvest because I own it.
My work setup is an iron fortress made to protect me and my 0 tracker store. I guess in a way my store, and me, show the extremes I have to do in order to opt out of data harvesting shows how bad the problem really is. These corporations thought they made it impossible, so F them I opted out.

2026-02-26 14:26:12 UTC

I proudly tell everyone "I work for myself and answer to no one." Yet I do whatever my cats want every time they scream at me. Although sometimes they just want cuddles and hugs, and that is an acceptable demand.
#CatsOfMastodon
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/116/137/386/715/629/718/original/ed9b06675e0d56fb.jpg

2026-02-22 18:25:57 UTC

Dinah was non-stop screaming for 15 minutes. Then I gave her a long hug and she stopped screaming.
#CatsOfMastodon
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/116/115/679/553/613/046/original/a190fc4e41039582.jpg

2025-12-16 20:19:32 UTC

I'm in an unfortunate predicament. My legs are shaking so much I cannot stand, my broken foot where my big toe and the space in between my big toe are broken is all fucked up from having to walk on it so much yesterday. I need to pack orders and go to the post office because it's the last minute before Christmas. Yet my body won't cooperate. I could drop it off tomorrow it's just risky.

2025-12-08 12:16:50 UTC

Apparently stealing packages in Texas is a state crime. Fewer than 10 packages can get you up to 1 year in jail and/or $4,000 fine. The more addresses a thief steals from the longer their jail sentence and thief's criminal charges level increases. If a thief steals packages from an elderly or disabled person their punishment is harsher and could lead to longer jail sentences. Interesting.

2025-11-04 15:46:02 UTC

I felt bad because my cat Sam has no toys and waiting for Christmas is a long time away. I got him these little plastic jingly balls for $3, but instead of playing with those he stole an ornament off the tree and played with that. *Sigh*

2025-08-21 19:31:11 UTC

When the last Windows update crashed my computer and corrupted all the files and SSD, I happened to be logged into the security sensitive websites I use to run my business. I think when the computer corrupted and crashed, it blocked my PC from accessing those websites. I can't even write my weekly email because Klaviyo has blocked this computer's access to my account. It works on my tablet, so not my internet IP. Just this computer. I can't access Shopify analytics either. Quicken has also blocked this computer's access to my account. This is the only working computer I have. 😭

2025-08-09 19:42:59 UTC

I spend too much time dragging myself down with "why did I do that I should have done __"
Instead of thinking okay I know better now it's fixed, I keep agonizing over my mistakes until I get physically ill from not letting it go. Torturing myself because I can't go back and change the past and undo my mistakes is unnecessary.

2025-07-31 21:33:00 UTC

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@nprofile…el4d I hope they crash and burn and go out of business forever lol.
All this explains why no one ever goes to the store website, because if they actually went to the store website 75% of them wouldn't email me.

2025-07-31 21:27:52 UTC

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@nprofile…el4d That would explain why I'm being flooded with cold emails about their ai.

2025-07-31 21:14:33 UTC

I got this cold email today saying they did research on my business through Apollo lead research and it shows I have 5 employees. I think these lead research sites just make up shit.

2025-05-28 20:44:07 UTC

Now that I'm not dropshipping anymore, my store's returning customer rate went up 61%. Which means I'm getting a lot more repeat customers now that everything is USA shipped. Just got to focus on bringing back all the bestsellers I lost.
I got the plushies today. Ordered some black and gold tissue paper to wrap the plushies in and black and gold thank you stickers to hold the tissue paper in place. Also some bigger black boxes to ship them in. All my boxes are black. It will look very nice.

2025-05-07 13:33:38 UTC

Accurate 😄
#ActuallyAutistic
#ADHD
#neurodivergent
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/114/466/787/265/434/058/original/ac01bc1c1c8a158e.jpeg

2025-04-28 02:08:14 UTC

It's much easier for me to get to know an autistic person. "What are your interests?" is my lead. Then finding interests in common. Followed by personal things.
Allistics I'm just lost. I get in trouble for asking the 'wrong' questions, and asking them autistic questions got me bullied and treated like I was severely defective. I don't know what they want me to ask. It's like we speak completely different languages.
#ActuallyAutistic

2025-03-26 14:24:06 UTC

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@nprofile…85tn I'm on there. We follow each other, I just don't use my account.

2025-03-09 14:07:49 UTC

I get up for 2 seconds and they take my spot on the couch.
https://autistics.life/system/media_attachments/files/114/132/855/964/185/087/original/c084a559345b1ea9.jpeg

2025-02-22 16:32:13 UTC

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@nprofile…85tn when I price author’s ebooks at $9.95 they don’t sell, but people buy a lot of them at $8.95. Your paperback is listed at $19.95 and there have been sales of that more than the ebook. In Autistic Bookshop your ebook sold often at $7.95 but not $8.95, but I guess since The Autistic Innovator is a different crowd, people don’t buy the ebook at $7.95, so will try $8.95 like everyone else’s books. I’m glad you said this because I owe you money. I sent the money to PayPal and then forgot. I’ll pay you when I get home from the post office.

2025-02-22 15:06:25 UTC

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@nprofile…85tn it’s just a lot of experimenting with price and changing it until people start buying it.

2025-02-21 22:18:22 UTC

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@nprofile…85tn It's a big guessing game to figure out what people think something is worth and what they are willing to pay. Like with the spinner ring I designed, I had it listed for $24.95 and 1.5 months later hadn't sold a single one. Then priced it at $19.95 and still no one bought it. Now it's at $22.95 and I've sold a lot of them at that price.

2025-02-21 22:08:09 UTC

My store is doing better this month than last month, thankfully! I had one day that was like christmas time with how many orders and the total sales for the day. Sales came from Google, email list, gift cards, some direct that I don't know where they came from. All in one day! 67% of what I've made this month comes from inventory, and that's the stuff I raised prices on. Probably why I'm doing better this month. 🙂
One inventory luxury fidget wasn't selling since November, but raised the price $5 and I've sold a bunch. Funny how that works.