Katie Griswold: Chasing Dreams and Championing Autism Advocacy on the Pageant Stage

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast, hosted by
Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest is Katie Griswold. She is joining me live
in the studio, and not only that, she's the first
episode for April, which everyone knows is Autism Awareness and
Acceptance month. She has such a great story, she's part
of the Miss Georgia pageantry, just so many things that
we're going to talk about, and I'm really glad to
have her here. Thanks for joining me, Katie, Thank you
for having me. It's my pleasure and it's great to
have you in the studio here with me today. So
let's start off with at what age was you diagnosed
as autistic?
I was diagnosed when I was eight years old.
Okay, so you're eight years old, just diagnosed autistic? What
went through your mind? And what did you have to
do to adapt?
It was definitely something I had to adapt to mostly
I was new to the whole autistic thing, and to me,
I kind of felt like I had a target on
my back more since I was being bullied a lot,
and it just affected me more.
Most people tell me that they get bullied primarily at
the public school. Is that where you was getting most
of your.
Yes, I definitely got it from the public school.
That's just really sad to hear. So what did you
do to correct the situation?
After I finished second grade, I went to online school
for my third grade year.
So you're eight years old, you've just recently been diagnosed autistic.
What changes in your life did you have to make
so that you could blend in with some of the
people in places that you wanted to fit in with.
Was that difficult for you?
It took a long time trying to fit into where
I needed to be. And when I got to Georgia
Connections Academy to the school I'm in right now, I
got the learning I needed. When I was into public school,
I didn't know how to read. The only words I
could say was and But when I got to online school.
I started reading full sentences and reading more every day,
so that kind of helped me more as being out
in the public.
What did you do to relax so that the pressure
wouldn't get to you so that you could still use
what you're learning from your online school to be able
to get out in the public more.
Mostly just at crazy and dance. I do dance a lot,
so it helps me motivate my system.
That's great. So has this allowed you to meet more
people and get more friends and how has that helped you?
I really mostly I had two friends at dance who
were really there for me and support of me everywhere
I go. But outside of dance, I really didn't have
anyone to go to. I just had my parents and
my little brother and his family.
Now your brother he's autistic as well? Correct?
Yes?
Now is he older or younger than you? He's younger, okay,
So being younger and autistic as well, how do you
two get along?
It was like a love hate relationship, like we'll agree
on some things and other times we just won't agree
on anything at all. He do everything by himself when
I try, and I'm like, okay.
So is he more of an introvert or an extrovert.
He's more of an introvert.
So that means you're at the extrovert of the family.
Then yes, well that's good because every family has to
have one. So what did the school system do that
caused you some issues?
It would either put us in time out or send
us to the principal's office, and that's just not how
to help kids with autism. They need to learn the
behaviors so they know how to help these kids.
Absolutely, So what else happened there that made you realize
that you needed to make a change with your school?
They would bully us. My brother would get put in
time out a lot. I'd get bullied by the teachers,
and they would send my mom fake note saying I
did something bad and then I didn't.
Well, that's just so sad to hear. Was there anyone
there that could help you?
Really not. There wasn't really anyone to help us, so
and he got my mom irritated a lot. So we
just got out of at school.
I think that was a very good choice. Now that
you're homeschooling, what's your day to day routines look like?
Basically, we wake up, get breakfast, and then we go
ahead and start school, do our life classes, and then
do our school work, and our mom comes home, she
checks if everything is right, and then we submit it
and then she'll log into our attendance and say, hey,
they did this.
That sounds like a very good routine. Now, I've talked
with several people that say their autistic kids have had
major meltdowns? Did you have any issues with major meltdowns
you or your brother had?
We had like a bunch of major meltdowns, me and
my brother. We did not like school at all. Every
time a new school years started, me and my brother,
we would be like, we're not going in there.
Okay. So now when you get up you go to
school on weekends. Let's say that you go Monday through Friday.
What's some of the activities you get in two on
the weekends.
Mostly I would go outside and help daddy either mow
the lawn or feed the fish, or go fishing and hunting.
My brother he would just stay indoors, watch TV, play
with his toys, line them up in color order. That's
just what we did on weekends.
That sounds good. So now you're homeschooled and you're doing
things in a completely different way. How about friends? Do
you have some friends now that you're socializing with how's
that working for you?
Now? I do have friends. They tried to include me
and stuff when I am available to go out and
do fun stuff with them, Like my church friends and
my Miss Georgia friends. They always try to include me
in any way they can.
That's awesome. It's great to have friends. You mentioned Miss Georgia.
At what age did you decide? I think that's what
I want to do.
Mostly when I was little. I was little when I
did start a pageants, but that was just school pageants.
But when I got older, I started seeing my friend
Kelsey Hollis, who was Miss Georgia twenty twenty two. She
was fourth runner up to Miss America and her brother
has autism as well. And I told Mama, said, I
want to start competing for pageants again. So we signed
a contract and we have my title Miss South Central
Georgia's team and I went to Miss Georgia and it
was something I have never experienced. Everyone was so kind
and welcoming. Every day I would get compliments saying, hey,
your talent was fantastic. Hope you do good on your
interview and when I come out of interview, everyone was like,
how was it? How was the interview? And I would
tell them and they would say, you got this you
have in the bag.
That's awesome. So you're autistic. You're going through these interviews.
Did you have anything that concerned you? And how did
you handle that so that you could compete and do
what you needed to do.
I was mostly concerned to mat in contact with the judges.
I had to tell the judges a lot. Now. I'm
not trying to be rude. I just can't make physical
eye contact with you. It's a part of my learning disability.
It infix with me in my brain.
Do the judges know before you told them this that
you were autistic?
I don't think did it.
Well? That could be a good thing because now that
they don't know, and you had to tell them that way,
they could be honest with you without knowing. Yeah, that's
great that you could be yourself. Eventually they found out
that you were autistic. Do you know when that happened?
When I first started doing Miss Georgia I think, or yeah,
it was when I started it, they started knowing I
had autism.
Okay, so every time that you do a pageant, is
that one of the things that you have to do
is have an interview with the judges and then move
on from there. Yes, so what type of interview is
it that they ask you?
It's a ten minute interview and there's a tie keeper
who tells the head judge, hey, times up, and the
head judges say, hey, you got You can say thirty
seconds of what you want to close with.
So when you get out of the interview and you
finish that, what's next on the agenda?
What's next is you get yourself together and get ready
for the competition. You have stages of competition. First is
on stage question and then fitness and the talent in
an evening walk, and then after evening walk its crowning.
Okay, that's very interesting. How do you get yourself prepared
for each step that you have to go through in
that pageant?
I take a breather, I pray with the girls who
are competing with me. We do a prayer circle. We
just go on from there and hope everything runs well.
And if one of us is having a meltdown, we
would calm each other down and then we would get
back on the road.
That's awesome. Now, you say that you have a talent, portion,
what's your talent and how do you prepare for that?
The talent is a ninety seconds routine. You can eat
or dance or saying was doing both. Some people say
it's hard to do both because you would run out
of breath easily. To be honest, it is. It took
me a long time trying to get my cardio work.
But as the more I did it, the more I
felt comfortable doing song and dance.
That's great. That's a tough thing to accomplish and sounds
like you've done it. What style of music do you
do when you get up there on that stage?
I basically want to hear the souls like Elvis. Elvis
was a sole kind of person. He was a rhythm
and blues basically rock and roll, because that's what it started,
rhythm and blues.
That's awesome. I think you told me earlier that you're
going more towards the country now for your shows.
Yes, because when I sing, my country accent tends to
come out a lot, and it's mostly when I talk
to when I talk to my friends, I was saying,
you have a good accent. I'm like, I'm from the
Southern what you expect so true.
Now you've been doing this for a while. In your mind,
what do you think that you've gained from doing these pageants?
Confidence? That's mainly what I've gained from doing these pageants
was being confident with myself now and that I can
be unstoppable through every single patcheant. I'm due. It's okay
if I don't win, because I'm not going to give up.
I will just bounce right back and say, hey, I'm
not giving up so easily. If I don't win any
of the locals, I'll do it at large again or digital.
I will find a way to go back to Miss
Georgia again and again because it boosted my confidence.
And you've gained a lot of friends out of this,
haven't you.
Yes, I gained ninety two best friends.
That's so awesome. Have you met other autistic people in
your pageantry as well?
Yes? Actually I have that. I was in an autistic
pageant that was for kids with autism, and I was
in it when I was little, okay, and it was fun.
It was amazing me being as little I was. I
still have my old little pageant outfit for that pageant.
Somewhere in the house. I had like my head piece
I still have and I don't know what it was,
but it was it was something I had to wear
and I was comfortable.
That's the main thing. You say that you've grown more confident.
What are some of the things that happened along the way,
and what are some of the things that actually gave
you that confidence to keep going?
Mostly morbullying, it brought me down a little, but when
I was in the pageant, it definitely boosted it. I
was with friends, I was comfortable around my age. We
were talking, we were having fun in the dressing room.
It didn't matter what time it was during rehearsal. We
would literally talk until it's our time to get up
there for rehearsals.
That's just really great. How do they treat you when
you go for a pageant.
They don't treat me for being autistic. They treat me
for who I am as a person.
That's really good. I'm glad to hear that.
That's what everyone should do with people who have autism.
They should treat them as a person and not for
this person who is autistic that they can't do anything
when they can. There should be people who should go
out and do things that people will say, Wow, this
person can do it.
Absolutely. I love that attitude. Now you're doing all these pageants.
What's your ultimate goal is that to get to that
Miss Georgia.
Yes, my goal is to win either Miss Georgia's team
or Miss Georgia and hopefully go on to Miss America
and hopefully when Miss America one day.
Why not someone has to Now along the way, you
are putting yourself out there where you're in the public
and people can see you. Yes, that gives them an
opportunity to get to know you, see how you handle yourself,
and what you are doing to promote what autistic people
can do. What's your goal to use your voice so
that you can be an advocate for autistic people around
the world.
Ministry and one day camps for people with disabilities like autism,
down syndrome, even the death community. You can talk to
them and make sure that hey, it doesn't matter if
you're death or if you have a disability or symptoms.
You can go out into the world and be yourself.
You don't have to have people tell you what to do,
but most importantly, just be confident with self. It doesn't
matter what people say about you, because as at the
end of the day, you're.
You, absolutely so, do you look at your autism like
others do? That is your superpower?
Definitely?
That's awesome. So it's your superpower. What do you do
to show everyone that your superpower is autism and you
can do anything just like anyone else can?
Mostly singing because sometimes when you sing, people will feel
that emotion the story behind the songs. And that's what
I want to be as a singer and hopefully a songwriter.
I want my songs to be a message to the world.
I think that's fantastic. There's nothing better to get messages
out there and make people feel something than music. Now
you're doing the pageants, you're hopefully going to win Miss
USA one day. Once you've accomplished everything that you want
and you've got to the level where you're happy, what's
after that? Do you want to continue with your music?
Basically just to sing for a living? Go out hopefully
around the world and talk to the people who are autistic,
who have many disabilities, and say, be the unstoppable for
as you are. Don't be afraid to tell people that
you have autism and that you're proud of it, because
there's probably some talented people in the military who do
have autism and are just afraid to say it. It
shouldn't be something they should be ashamed of. They should say, hey,
I'm autistic, but don't bring me down for it. I
can still go out and serve my country. I can
still go out and dance and sing and play football.
That should be something they should be proud of.
I absolutely agree. Now, you say that you want to
tell the story behind the song. If I was to
write a song and it was you, what would your
story tell.
That I am unstoppable, I am confident in me. It
doesn't matter if I'm not autistic, or if I have
downs in drown or if I am deaf. I can
still tell my story within my emotions and with how
I'm speaking with other people, I could tell my story
who I am as a person.
I agree one hundred percent. So basically, you want to
inspire people, Yes, I think that's just awesome. Now, because
you're autistic, you understand what others that are autistic are
going through on a daily basis. What can you do
to inspire them? And what words of advice would you
give to them? So they could just keep moving forward
with their life.
Be yourself, don't be afraid to show who you are
and grow within yourself.
That's so good. Now, what would you like to tell everyone?
You've told them your story. You've told them about your autism,
about your schooling and the bullying that you went through.
How you gain friends? What words of advice would you
like to give people that are listening to just help
them a little bit more.
Go out and talk to these people with autism and
let them know, Hey, don't be afraid of who you
are a person in life because God created you in
his own image. That is what teachers and principles of
schools should know too. They should know the behaviors so
they can know, hey, let's take it slow, so this
person knows how to do math or science or education more.
Okay. So your goals to help people spread the message
of what you're trying to put out there, it usually
starts at the community level. So what would you like
to see in your local community to help those that
need help?
I would love to see these one day camps for
kids and adults with autism called Celebrate Autism Day. Because
autism it doesn't just have to be a month, It
could be a whole year if everyone around the world
start these one day camps that's to celebrate Autism Day
for kids and adults with special needs, like talent shows
to show people what they can do, or even more
fun stuff like learning about the community and how law
enforcements work. That would be a fun thing for kids
and adults with autism.
Okay, I've had autistic people that's worked with the fire department,
that's worked with a lot of different entities that way,
what would you do to raise that to a bigger scope,
you know, make it a little bit bigger with some
of your ideas there.
Maybe like a fire truck and people with like wet stuff,
like they should just sprye a hose for the kids
who want to get wet, and maybe a water slide,
a talent show like a stage, and maybe a little
fun pageant for people with autism. They would still get
crowns and sash for any people like adults that they
want to be in the pageant. Go ahead, You're still
going to get a crown and says in the end
of the day.
One of the things that's been told to me several
times is that people that are newer typical do not
understand autistic people. They've got this vision they think is
something that's not really what it is. And a friend
of mine, this autistic said that people don't understand that
when she gets up from school and goes home, that
she doesn't leave autism. Autism goes with her because that's
her for the rest of her life. How would you
bridge that gap so that people that aren't autistic can
understand people that are.
I think there should be like a class about learning
autism for people who want to learn it, so they
know the behaviors, they know what they could do to help,
and it should be a class that should probably be
in school for people who want to learn to help
these people grow in live.
That's great ideas. I really like it. So what's important
to you today right now? So to speak?
It's important to me most is spending time with your
fans family. If you're autistic and your family has a
hard time understanding that they don't know what to do,
they should talk to somebody and help the family learn
more about autism so they know what to do to
help their child grow more in education wise, but also
to feel unique and to feel accepted.
There's such a wide spectrum of autism. You got people
that can get violent, that they have all kinds of issues.
How would you bring that out so that people would
get a better understanding that this is something that's going
through their mind. It's not them just being bad people.
If a child is acting out as school, they should
stop what they're doing, take a minute with the child
and say, hey, let's go outside and go for a walk,
or let's watch something to cool your mind down. And
that's what should help. Because my brother he calms down
more when he's watching TV. He's in his own little world.
That's how he's functioning. By having something playing on his
tablet and something playing on the TV. That's how he
is calm and how he just motivates in life. When
he's in the schoolroom, he's like and when he's not
get doing something that he wants his way, he acts out.
And that's when we tell him, Okay, take a break,
calm down, let's go watch TV.
Now. I think you told me that he's into music
and he's just a big fan of hard rock.
Yes, he loves Skillett in all the rock and roll bands.
Does that help calm him down?
Yes? He will play it in the middle of the
night and we'll all wag up and be like, well,
there's no getting him to sleep this time.
Okay, So what calms you like? There must be times
that you can feel some anxiety coming on, or or
you've got the pressure of a big sh coming up,
or something that's just just stressing you a little bit.
What do you do to calm yourself down so that
you can kind of get yourself back to doing what
you need to do to move forward.
When I'm feeling anxious, I would look up pictures of dogs. Literally,
dogs are so cute. They would help me calm me down.
My dogs at the house they know when I feel anxious.
Rome will literally just come up to me and literally
just lay on top of me because he knows something's wrong.
He knows that I'm not okay, and he's just being
there trying to calm me down.
Okay. So does that get you to your comfort zone
or where you start feeling better?
Yes?
Okay. And then once you start feeling better, how do
you process that so that you can kind of put
that off to the side and then start focusing on
what needs to be done or whatever you might be
thinking about doing.
Sometimes I would take pictures of my dogs and bring
them with me when I go to the pageants. So
if I feel like I need to look at something,
I will look at my dogs and calm myself down
and say, okay, let's get back on track, and I
would literally just think of my dogs. I will just
pretend that judges are just my dogs.
Okay, that's good. So I understand that the last time
that you got interviewed, the judges thought you did outstanding
if I am correct, yes, So how did that make
you feel when they told you that? What went through
your mind?
That? In my mind, I was saying to myself, Okay,
I'm on the right track. I'm getting somewhere, and now
that I'm here in this organization with Miss Georgia, I'm
finally getting out of my comfort zone and getting into
something that I'm not used to. But I am getting
used to more with being around people my age and
hearing the judges compliments on me.
Okay, you just brought something up that I think is important.
You said that you're getting out of your comfort zone,
So how do you approach it when you're doing something
that you haven't done before or you've done it, but
it's just a little bit. You're anxious about it, not
quite sure about it because it's not your comfort zone.
How do you handle that and how do you attack it?
I've opened my Bible and I would just read what
I'm in the dressing room when I have time, and
then I would say a little prayer and then go out.
Okay. And then when you're in the middle of that
that stressed you out, does that allow you to just
completely forget all the outside world and focus on what
you're doing?
Yes?
Good, Okay. You mentioned being bullied. So when someone's being bullied,
what is the first thing they need to do? And
then how do they take and cover that so they
can get that situation corrected.
They should tell a trusted adult like their moms or
dad and say, hey, I'm getting bullied, I don't want
to do this, and one more take me out. And
that should be something that the parent needs to discuss
with the teachers, saying, hey, my child is getting bullied.
If you don't do something about this, my child's not
gonna be back. That should be what the parents should do.
They should stick up for their kids, because sometimes I
think parents are afraid to stick up for their children,
and that's what they need to do. They need to
stick up. They don't need to let the child deal
with it. They need to stick up for their child.
Okay, So when you were bullied, how did you handle
it and how did you process it in your mind
so that you could take and get away from it
and get back to feeling better about yourself.
I told my mama and I told my daddy. Both
of them said that I should take a break. I
was going to tell them teachers how I feel, and
Mama told the teachers how I feel about what's happening
with me, how I'm getting bullied, and how it's affecting
me and my mental health. And that's something a KULD
also needs. If you are not having fun as an
autisic person who's doing a sport and you're getting bullied
a lot, take a break, step back saying I'm not
doing this no more. I'm with something else that is
healthy for me.
Okay. So once you did that, did you see things changed?
Did they get better for you?
Yes? Definitely?
Okay. What about the school system did they take and
change anything at all? Or is that something that still
needs to be handled.
It's definitely something that still needs to be handled. I
haven't been back in the public school for I don't
know when, but if they still haven't changed, they need
to work on it.
Do you have any friends that are autistic that are
still in the public school system that are dealing with
any of the similar situations that you just talked about.
Yes. One of my friends, she has autism and me
and her used to dance all together. She's getting bullied
from school and dance, and I try to help her
as best as I can, but I tell her, at
the end of the day, you need to tell your grandma.
You need to tell her how you feel, and if
it ain't fun for you, go somewhere else.
What were some of the things that they would bully
you about. What was their whole process of doing it.
Like they would say, oh, you're autistic, you can't do anything.
They would bully me, they would pick on me sometimes
just talk down on me, And that's something that needs
to work on. I should feel accepted for the way
I am. There shouldn't be anything wrong with me, even
if there is. In the end, I'm my own person.
We're all equal. It doesn't matter if you're this or that.
Absolutely. So you're sixteen years old now and you've got
a couple more years before you would graduate. What are
some of the things that you want to accomplish in
the next couple of years.
To go out and educate people with autism and people
with no autism. They should learn more and grow more
within themselves. But also I want them to feel confident,
to be unstoppable. I want them to feel accepted.
Okay, so we've covered a lot of great things, but
before we leave this, let's touch a little bit more
on your Miss Georgia Teen and your pageantry that you're
part of. So tell me a little bit more about
what the Miss Georgia pageantry is.
So the Miss Georgia and Miss George's Teen organization is
under the Miss America organization, and it's really about giving
women a chance to go out and do their best
to be Miss America and to show their state that
women can do anything that guys can do. If a
girl wants to run for president.
Go ahead, absolutely. Now I understand that there's something about
the crown and pillars. Can you explain that?
So the crown has four pillars, but the most important
one to the Miss America. Organization is sisterhood and the
other four is style, service, scholarship, and success.
That's great. I have learned so much from you today,
and I'm sure the listeners have too. There's one other
thing that we have to bring up. Last year you
won Miss South Central Georgia's Outstanding Team, and just recently
you won another. Can you tell us what it is?
It is Missumnu County's Teen twenty twenty four.
That's fantastic. Now I understand that in June you'll be
in the pageantry for Miss Georgia Junior Teen. Is that correct? Yes,
sir well, I truly enjoyed this conversation. It was really great.
So once again, I really appreciate you taking your time
to come on.
Thank you so much.
It's been my pleasure. Now, there's one thing that I
want to tell everyone that's been listening to this episode.
Spending a little time with Katie here in my studio,
I learned that not only is she very good in
the pageantry, but she's a very good singer as well.
So I found her a song called Make a Difference,
brought her to Nashville. We recorded it, and it turned
out so well that we are going to release it
on iTunes in a couple of weeks. So we're going
to start the month off with Katie's podcast, and then
we're going to end the month off with a kickoff
of her new song, make a Difference. So follow her
and follow us, and thanks for listening. Thanks for taking
the time out of your busy schedule to listen to
our show today. We hope that you enjoyed it as
much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you
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