When Marie Synnøve Hellevang got expelled from her dance academy, she was determined to change other people's view on Asperger's so that others do not have to go through the same as her. Marie is 19 years old and started university this January 2019. She has Asperger’s which, as she says, gives her a lot of resources. However, she cannot always use them because society is afraid of people who are different. Her plan is to become a linguist, and right now she is very interested in the syntactic aspect of languages. Yet, no language can cover all her thoughts, which is probably why she at times does art. She draws and choreographs, and people seem to like what she creates. Marie's goal in life is to contribute to science and to use art and other media to inspire people to think a bit differently.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx