I am an autistic illustrator and speaker, which sounds like two entirely separate things until you spend five minutes on this website and realise they are very much the same person.
I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, social anxiety and OCD in 2009, at the age of 19. PDD-NOS is no longer a diagnostic term. It now falls under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder. What that means in practice is that I have spent my entire adult life understanding, articulating, and occasionally arguing with how my brain works. It turns out that is surprisingly useful both professionally and creatively.
How I got here
What happened next was less linear. Whilst waitressing, cleaning, and taking on whatever freelance work I could find, I taught myself technical animation in my flat. The kind of obsessive, self-directed learning that comes naturally when you are genuinely fascinated by something. By the time I walked into MPC London, one of the largest visual effects studios in the world, I had honed that self-taught foundation into a specialism: the simulation of skin, hair, fur, cloth, and the thousand small physical details that make a character feel real rather than rendered.
If you have seen The Jungle Book, the 2016 film, and paid attention to the way Baloo's bottom wobbles as he walks, that is the kind of work I was doing. Months of research into bear musculature, fat simulation, and the precise physics of fur, translated frame by frame. I also spent six months animating wind moving through grass and working out exactly how Kaa's skin should squish and stretch. An obsessive mind is exactly the right tool for that job.
MPC also gave me a thorough and frequently brutal education in what it means to be autistic in a high-pressure, open-plan, twelve-hours-a-day professional environment. That education has informed everything I have done since.
I grew up in a house full of books, in a family where having an obscure fact ready was social currency. My grandmother had travelled the world after she retired and collected knowledge the way other people collect souvenirs. That probably explains quite a lot.
I studied Fine Art, English Literature, Theatre Studies and Classical Civilisations at college. In practice it was an early indication that I was most interested in how people make things, how stories, folklore and mythology develop and weave in and out of civilisations and the natural world.
From there I went to Staffordshire University to study 3D Character Animation and Special Effects. It was a small, eclectic cohort and the right environment for someone who learns obsessively and needs to understand how everything works from the inside out. I left with a 2:1 honours degree and a generalist foundation in animation.
The illustration work
Still Growing Botanical Studio grew out of the same instincts that made me good at technical animation: careful observation, obsessive research, and a need to understand the physical structure of things before attempting to draw them.
I create botanical illustrations for wellness brands, specialising in ingredient storytelling and educational content. Every illustration begins with research: the plant's structure, its properties, the way it grows before a single mark is made. That process produces work that is grounded and specific rather than decorative.
I sketch in pencil first, then paint digitally using a Wacom pen — with the same hand and eye as traditional botanical illustration. I work in Rebelle, using dip pen linework, detailed shading and oil pastels for colour to produce illustrations that are tactile and human. In an era of AI-generated imagery, the fact that it is visibly hand-made matters. The wobbly line is not a flaw.
Alongside my illustration work I write The Herbarium, a botanical facts blog on this website, which is exactly what it sounds like: a place where the research obsession gets to run slightly loose.
You can find my full illustration portfolio here.
The speaking work
In 2014 I was invited to participate in the EU-AIMS (LEAP) study, the first large-scale autism study to actively recruit female participants. It marked the beginning of a sustained involvement in autism research that continues today, across multiple studies and discussions.
Since 2018 I have delivered an annual lecture on autistic lived experience to MSc students in Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. What began as a twenty minute talk, delivered alongside another speaker, has grown over eight years into a sixty minute lecture with Q&A. A fresh cohort of students every year, and always something new to say, because the understanding keeps developing.
Alongside that I have contributed to a number of panels and podcasts, including the Late Diagnosis of Autistic Women open panel discussion held by Clinical Partners, OT and Chill's autism series with Kwaku Agyemang and Hannah Haywood, and three appearances on Waterwaves Radio's Listening Matters with Stephen Kearney and Maria Holynski, discussing autistic women and employment.
My speaking work sits under my own name. It covers the internal experience of being autistic: masking, identity, late diagnosis, navigating systems, vulnerability, and motherhood. It is aimed at organisations, universities, and clinical audiences who need what a textbook cannot provide. I am a primary source.
You can find out more about the speaking work here.
The rest of it
I am also a lone parent to two spectacularly sociable small children, the best and most chaotic thing that has ever happened to my carefully managed sensory environment I write about autism, masking, and the things that do not get talked about enough over on Substack.
If you want to work together, whether that is a speaking enquiry or an illustration project, the best place to start is here.
Testimonials
“I am the Programme Lead of the master’s degree Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences at King’s College London and invited Emma to speak with our students about 10 years ago. She delivered a brilliant lecture about her experience as a service user of the clinical and research teams our course is connected to. She is now a regular contributor to our teaching and highly appreciated by the students. Emma is so honest and open about her neurodivergent lived experience and welcomes questions and discussions from the students. Educational literature promotes the value of incorporating lived experience of sharing of personal stories, for translating knowledge to students. Emma combines her experiences of going through diagnosis services as a female, participating in research studies, her educational journey, career and present life as a single mum of two. I highly recommend Emma as an excellent speaker.”
— Dr Eileen Daly, Reader in Neurodevelopmental Science, Programme Lead MSc Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Dept of Forensics and Neurodevelopmental Sciences/Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London
“Emma is a highly reliable and talented illustrator who consistently delivers high-quality work, even to tight deadlines. She quickly understood each brief and translated it into clear, engaging visuals that aligned perfectly with the project’s goals.
She is responsive, adaptable, and easy to work with, handling feedback and last-minute changes with professionalism and speed. Emma also brought added value beyond the initial scope, supporting layout, concept development, and wider creative needs across multiple projects.
I would highly recommend Emma to anyone looking for a skilled illustrator who combines creativity with efficiency and a strong understanding of client requirements.”
— Clare Anderson, Author, Founder of Sensory Retreats, Shared Beauty Secrets and Sensory Sleep