Her life (so far.)
At her very first birthday party, Jennifer's grandfather leaned over and said: "Well, Jenny, another year shot to hell."
It became the family motto.They put it on the holiday cards.
Born in New York City in 1996 and diagnosed with autism at four, Jennifer always knew she was different. That's what being the only special needs kid at your school for most of your childhood does to you.
The road was not straight: difficult schools, mean girls, a bat mitzvah completed during one of the hardest periods of her life, SATs failed twice. She kept going — through Drew University, and now William Paterson University, where she is studying Library Science.
As Jennifer says:
"At college and on my own. Made it after all!"
THE WRITER
Jennifer always was creative. She wanted to be an actress. Then a musician.
Writing was the dream that lasted. At ten she founded her own newspaper, The Backpack News. At twenty, Skyhorse Publishing released her first book. Her novel Manimal Crackers followed, along with a co-authored memoir, Love in the Age of Autism, and essays published in Research Autism and Age of Autism.
THE THINKER
Jenny is one of the most culturally voracious people writing today. In 2024 she reviewed 100 Columbia Pictures films for the studio's centenary. From Garfield to Girl Interrupted, from the Green Hornet to the Beatles jukebox musical. She gives Adam Sandler's Reign Over Me four stars. And guess what, she is rarely wrong.
She doesn't follow the neurodiversity party line and has been attacked online for it because:"At the end of the day, you need to think for yourself and do what's best for you."
THE ACTIVIST
Jennifer has always found more than one way to make the world better. She has collected jeans for homeless teens, run school supply drives, and supported organizations like Water.org and Feeding America. She helped a boy on her school bus write his fantasy story. She volunteered at a special needs camp.
And then there is writing. Because entertaining people by making them laugh, making them think, making them feel less alone is also how you change the world. Jennifer knows what it feels like to be autistic in a world that wasn't built for you. That knowledge is not incidental. It is the whole point.
"I may be a quirky person, but that's okay. It's part of who I am."
- Jenny Rose, It's Not a Perfect World, But I'll Take It
COMING SOON
Jennifer has always believed that being autistic doesn't define your ceiling, it just means you need the right support to reach it. That belief is behind everything coming next.
Autonomy is a literary magazine for writers and readers with autism. Not a magazine about autism, but a literary magazine, written by autistic writers and edited by Jennifer with the same independence she brings to everything else. It doesn't exist yet. But it is recruiting potential writers and readers.