"As a photographer, I wanted to give these women a chance to show their faces and share their personal stories." - Miranda

I am Miranda Stevens, the photographer behind this project.

As a young child, I could often be found in my father's darkroom, developing photos was a magical process to me. Photographing portraits is clearly my passion, I am visually oriented, autodidact and a real visual thinker.

During my journey to look into autism, I often came across the stereotypical characteristics in which I did not recognise myself. Three years ago, together with Female Autism Network Netherlands (FANN), the idea was born to start a photo project about autism in women. As a photographer, I wanted to give these women a chance to show their faces and share their personal stories.

I am incredibly proud to have won the FANN Innovation Award 2022 with this photo project. Over the past few years, I have worked on this project with tremendous joy and passion and I think 101 is a great number to finish it with. Project 101 has become a series of portraits that tell a story that I think needs to be told, so that together we can more widely create knowledge and understanding about autism in women and girls.

Whether you are a caregiver, a neighbour, autistic yourself or over here out of an interest, I hope that you as a visitor to this website will be inspired by the portraits and stories that share a richness of real experiential knowledge.